Midnight Madness
by fantezie
Summary: Kudo Shinichi moves out to Ekoda in the hope of a new beginning and everything would be different for him. But the changes that happened are nothing like what he had been expecting. Not necessarily bad changes at all, just…out of the ordinary. [KaiShin / HakuAo]
1. Chapter 1: Brand New Days

**Midnight Madness**

 **Disclaimer** : Detective Conan and Magic Kaito belongs to Aoyama Gosho. Persona Series belongs to ATLUS. The author owns none of the characters and places that appear in here.

 **Pairing** : KaiShin, HakuAo

 **Rate:** T

 **Genre:** Supernatural, Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Friendship

 **Note** : English is not my native language, so I apologize for spelling and grammar errors. And you don't really need to know Persona Series and its characters to follow the story.

 **Summary** : Kudo Shinichi moves out to Ekoda in the hope of a new beginning and everything would be different for him. But the changes that happened are nothing like what he had been expecting. Not necessarily bad changes at all, just…out of the ordinary.

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 **Chapter 1: Brand New Days**

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The door of the Kudo mansion creaked opened to reveal a dark-haired teen standing in front of the door frame with a large black luggage in his hand and a satchel bag on his shoulders. Stepping out into the bright light of the afternoon sun, he was greeted by the soundless wind that grazed his hair and skin softly. He smiled and then his sapphire blue eyes looked up to the clear sky.

The sky still looked the same, but for him it was different. To the rest of the world, nothing had changed. But for him, a lot of things—almost everything—had changed.

For one of the most important things was that the long battle against the Black Organization had finally over. They were finally gone for good this time. And the second thing was that he finally got his body back to normal. All of it had sounded like a dream, however a dream that managed to come true. All his hard works didn't go to waste.

"Shin-chan… Do you really need to go?"

A feminine voice could be heard coming from behind him. Without the need to turn around he knew it was his mother's voice, asking the same question for the umpteenth time this afternoon. He let out a sigh as he started walking down the path to the front gate where a yellow beetle car parked just outside of it. A little girl with strawberry blond hair could be seen leaning against the car's passenger door, and there was a white-haired old man stood beside her.

"Do you really, _really_ need to go today?" Yukiko asked again, following his son with her husband trailing close behind.

"Yes, Kaasan, I need to go. And yes, it has to be today," Shinichi replied before his mother asked any more questions. Not that it would stop her for voicing her thoughts though.

"You still can take our offer to go with us to America instead, you know?"

"No," he declined right away. "But thanks for the offer though."

Honestly, he loved his parents and he did care about them. However he didn't want his sanity suffering from their constant weirdness. It was bad enough for the past months he was forced to live with them again in the Kudo mansion for a while.

Well, they toned down their…unique habits a bit. But still, he'd rather not spend much more time with them than necessary. Especially when the reason they went back to America was to, _once again_ , running away from Yuusaku's editor. And there was no doubt they would finally resume their travelling hobby around the world. They seemed couldn't even stay at the same place for quite long time.

"Hah… I still can't believe my little Shin-chan will go far, far away and lives by himself… Leaving me behind, here, in the old house… I will miss him—oh no, I'm starting to miss him already…," she said in dramatic tone, suddenly leaning to her husband's shoulder who standing beside her.

Yuusaku didn't say anything. He just patted her head lightly, trying to comfort her from her worries. It made Shinichi realized that apparently his father was already corrupted into the same madness as his wife.

Shinichi rolled his eyes to the drama being display in front of him. He chose to ignore them in favor loading his luggage onto the baggage of Agasa-hakase's car. It was a normal thing to happen anyway. Leave it to his mother to say something as dramatic as like that. Leave it to his father to play along with her just like that.

But really…did she forget that he already lived by himself ever since he was thirteen? And he didn't move out _that_ far away, just another city. Not to mention, they would leave as well in about an hour or so. So technically, no one left anyone behind. Besides, they were family. Family meant no one being left behind. No matter how far away they were from each other, their hearts were always close.

"Shin-chan, you can—no, _have_ to tell us all what had happened at least once a week. And if it turns out you don't like it there, just say so! We'll come and take you back right away. I'm serious, Shin-chan! We'll definitely come and visit you if you don't call us!"

The dark-haired teen froze after hearing that. He could already begin to see the horror of that sentence could bring to him if it really happened.

"Yukiko, I think you don't need to do that. He's not a kid anymore. There's no need to be overprotective," Yuusaku said.

A pout was seen in her beautiful face as she turned toward her husband.

"Well, you can't really blame me for being worried, Yuu-chan. Last time we left Shin-chan lived on his own he got himself into _dangerous_ situation and nearly _died_. It's not like I don't trust him enough and I do understand he can take care of himself, but after last time—"

"Kaasan… I'll be fine, I promise. I'll be more careful than before," Shinichi said, trying to reassure his mother who looked like genuinely worried about him.

Yukiko still didn't look convinced but she stopped her rambling. She walked up to him, and before he knew it, suddenly she warped her arms around him, giving him a motherly hug. Shinichi stood awkwardly then slowly warped his arms around her as well.

However as the seconds ticked by, he realized the motherly hug was transforming into the bone-crushing hug. Panicked, the boy tried prying himself out of Yukiko's clutches. Unfortunately it only made her tightening her hold on him as if he was a large plush toy. After a moment finally his mother let him go, but not before landed an embarrassing peck on his cheek.

In the background, Yuusaku could be seen looking at the scene with amused smile. Haibara Ai, who standing near the car, had a smirk adoring her face while there was a cell phone in her hand—clearly she had just secured a blackmail material. And on the other side of the car there was Agasa-hakase who smiled in understanding—being the neighbor of the Kudo family for years made him already being used to the their strangeness.

Shinichi looked embarrassed but recovered quickly as he threw an annoyed look at Yukiko and a glare at Haibara. Glancing at his wristwatch, he realized he only had thirty minutes to get to the station if he didn't want to be late.

"I need to go now. I'll be late. Bye Kaasan, Tousan."

Yuusaku smiled then gave his son a pat on the shoulder. "Take care of yourself and don't be reckless," his father said.

"I will."

The dark-haired boy got into the back seat of the car and Agasa-hakase sat on the driver's seat while Haibara slipped into the passenger's seat. Shinichi throw one last look at his parents and the mansion in general, somehow feeling sad. It was the first time he was the one leaving the house and for quite a long time as well. Before now, he didn't realize how much the house meant for him, it was the place he grew up after all.

The engine turned on and the car began to drive away from the Kudo mansion.

"Shin-chan! Don't forget what I just tell you!" Yukiko shouted loudly, waving her hands.

"Yes, Kaasan," he said in whispered tone.

"Your parents are interesting," Haibara said from her seat.

"No, they're a living nightmare."

"That's what made them interesting."

' _Devil's spawn!'_ Shinichi thought.

"By the way, how do you feel today?" she asked suddenly.

Shinichi glanced at her. "Fine, I guess. And for your information, I did ate breakfast and lunch."

"Good. At least you don't skip them like yesterday."

"I told you, it wasn't on purpose. I was busy and besides you made me ate a lot of food during dinner afterward."

Because busy was the only word that could be used to describe what his life was like for the past months after he had came back to his normal self.

"Yeah, yeah, busy," Haibara replied, rolling her eyes. From her tone it was obvious she didn't buy his excuse. "There is something I want to give to you."

She pulled out a small vial with a lot of tablets on it. Shinichi blinked at her for a moment then reached out and took the vial from Haibara. He examined it closely.

The tablets were small and white in colored. But its shapes were quite unusual ones. Some of it was flower shapes, but there was also heart shapes, bunny shapes, cat shapes, and even crown shapes. He didn't know it was possible to make tablets like that, but apparently Haibara could. There was a piece of paper with Haibara's neat hand-writing "Drink me!" being tagged in it, making him sweat-dropped. Definitely she got influence from Ayumi's new likeness toward _Alice in Wonderland_.

"That is the supplement for you—for your health. It was meant to help you get the nutrition you need for your body. Because I just _knew_ you most likely would neglect your meals."

"I didn't neglect them, I just sometimes forgot to do it," he murmured quietly.

"Really? You forgot about your meals yet you don't forget about your coffee. It is amazing, isn't it?" she said with sarcasm dripping in every word as she crossed her arms.

"Okay, okay… I won't forget about my meals."

"Good. Don't forget to take the supplement as well, one tablet per day. I advice you take it during breakfast," the strawberry blond-haired girl said then glancing outside of the window.

"Yes, Ma'am…," Shinichi replied quietly. He put it on his pocket without saying anything more and judging from her posture, it seemed Haibara had nothing to say more either.

It was quiet in the car apart from the noise of the machine and the hustle and bustle other transportation on the streets. Resting his head against his knuckles, Shinichi looked out of the window. He didn't need to be a detective to know that she still felt guilty about what had happened to him and felt responsible about it too—even if it wasn't her fault. She did more than enough already, so she should be no longer feel guilty.

He still remembered that day. It wasn't long after the Black Organization had been taken down…

.

.

.

Conan walked down the stairs to the basement uncertainly, because it was unusual for Haibara to suddenly want him to come to her laboratory. What could it be she wanted from him? Most likely she wanted him to be her test subject or needed more of his blood. Well, whatever it was he needed to be remain calm. He knocked on the metal door of the basement and waited for an answer. (She had been upset at him before when he came in there unannounced, because apparently the basement/laboratory was her territory.)

"Come in," came the muffle voice from the other side of the door.

He opened the door and stepped inside. Looking around the place he realized it still messy as ever, but there were some small different that would go unnoticed if they hadn't been there as many times as him before. He saw Agasa-hakase sat on the chair near the table. The old man smiled at him when their gazes met.

Walking around a table with a lot of unorganized chemical liquids, he found the strawberry blond-haired girl stood calmly in front of her computer. Her gaze directed at his every move like a scientist observing her test subject. Well, that was not so far from the truth. She was a scientist and he was her victim, ah, test subject.

"It's finish," Haibara said calmly, pulling out something from her lab coat then put it on the table.

Conan eyed the thing which turned out to be a small white pill then looked at the little scientist questioningly. Did she finish another experimental antidote again and want him to try it out?

"It's the permanent antidote."

The little detective's eyes widened. "R-really? It is the antidote?" he asked disbelievingly. Gingerly he took the pill, intended to just gulp it down right now right there.

"Yes, I already checked it numerous times. It's indeed the permanent one. But before you take it, I advice you listen to my explanation first," she replied while gesturing Conan to take a seat on the empty chair beside the table.

Conan just nodded. It wouldn't hurt to wait for a while. No need to rush when his main goal was already in his hands. So he sat down while Haibara sat in front of him on her own chair.

"As you already knew, the temporary antidote could return you back to normal even if only a short time. It forced your immune system to drop drastically. When you accidentally drank Baijiu and catch a cold at the same time, you could change back to normal as well. From those two cases I tried to make an experiment from different angle and finally I found the answer. However I think you might be won't like the answer that I got."

The little scientist glanced at the small vial with red pills on it. "The experimental antidote I made before the final antidote has a bigger side effect than the temporary ones. It could change you back to normal, yes, but it would kill you. It would slow the hearts so low that it eventually just stopped beating. Certainly the experimental one's a failure. However it indeed had a small amount of success. So I tried to lessen the side of effects of it."

She paused and let her word sink in the silence that deafening the room.

Agasa-hakase still sat on his chair without making any indication to move but it was clear that he also listening to her explanation albeit a bit calmly, as if already heard it before. Maybe he indeed had heard it. Haibara made a habit telling the old man if there was something important or something that had to do with Conan after all.

Meanwhile Conan found himself lost for words, his eyes widened at the news. With a curt nod from him, she continued.

"The final antidote still has a side effect—not as much as the experimental but more than the temporary ones. It will lower your immune system, much lower than normal permanently. Your body will be weak against illnesses—making you sick easily, especially cold. From then on you will need to be extra careful about your health," she explained. "I'm sorry; I can't make the side effect disappear."

"But it's still working, right?"

"It will work, I guarantee it will. But unfortunately I can't guarantee your safety."

"What do you mean?"

"You took a lot of temporary antidotes beforehand and your body going a lot of changes for such small period of times. Not only it put strains to your body but it also made your body build an immune system to the antidote, not to mention there were a lot of different chemicals on your body as well. Since the dose of the final antidote slightly different than the others, this time will be the last chance you can take it. There is a chance you will die because of it."

"What!?"

She let her gaze fell on the floor guiltily. "It is too risky, Kudo-kun. You don't have to take it if you don't want to."

"No! No, no, no, it's fine Haibara. It's not your fault," he said quickly.

"It's still my fault. If I hadn't made the poison, you wouldn't have to be in this kind of situation. You wouldn't need the temporary antidotes. You wouldn't have to wait for so long for me to finish the permanent one as well."

"But you worked hard to fix everything right again, didn't you?"

"You're the one who clean the mess, Kudo-kun. Not me."

"Well, true. But I'm not the only one. You still worked hard to help me find the antidote. You said it will work, so I believe it indeed will work," Conan said as his blue eyes behind the glasses looked at the tiny pills sat innocently in his palm. "About the side effects… I think it was inevitable since APTX 4869 messing up our systems already, the temporary antidote or final antidote only messing up my system more, but not yours. It's gonna be fine for you, right?"

Haibara looked up and shook her head. "No, I won't take it. I don't need it, Kudo-kun. I'm no longer Miyano Shiho. I want to start over my life as Haibara Ai," she said with a small smile.

He found himself smiled back at her. He knew she indeed needed a new beginning for her previous dark life as Miyano Shiho. It was a second chance for her and she took it gladly. And with the Black Origination gone, she was free. He was happy for her.

"I will take it then," Conan said determinedly.

"Shinichi-kun, are you sure about this?" Hakase asked him as he stood from his chair, approaching them with worried eyes. "The risk is a bit too high."

"I know the risk but it was my goal from the start, to come back to my real body. I don't want to be stop when the answer already in my hands. I want to be back. I want to be Kudo Shinichi again. I want to be myself again."

"We won't stop you. We only want you to make a wise decision."

"Yes, I know, Hakase. It's my choice. Besides, Conan already said his goodbye to everyone."

Agasa-hakase gave him a small smile of understanding.

"You do realize there are a lot of problems and explaining to do if you come back, right? Especially about Ran-san and your school. Are you sure you want to just suddenly come out of nowhere after disappearing almost two years like that?" Haibara said while looking at Hakase who opening the cabinet to take out a glass and a bottle of minerals.

"That's one of the main reasons I need to come back."

Haibara didn't say any more but she handed him a pair of pajamas—Shinichi's pajamas—to change into before he transforming back. Conan took them and ran into the basement's bathroom to change quickly. The pajamas were soft, comfortable, and big enough that it wouldn't get in the way of the growing process of his body.

When he stepped out, there was a futon already laid down in the middle of the room. Agasa-hakase stood beside Haibara while pouring the water to the glass. Conan walked up and sat comfortably on the futon. The old man handed the glass of water to him who took it gratefully. Looking at the pill one last time, he thought that it was ironic such a small thing could change a life of another so greatly. Finally he took a deep breath then swallowed it and gulped down the water.

At first nothing had happened, and a thought occurred to him that maybe even the final antidote didn't able to work on him anymore. It wouldn't be a surprise, really. But the steady gaze on Haibara's eyes and the worried gaze on Hakase's eyes washed away his doubts. Especially when suddenly he found his eyes widen as the antidote immediately started to take effect.

The pain was white hot and searing. It sent the hottest of roaring fires from inside his whole body, as if his body was being burn alive on the fire. He could felt it, his bones beginning to grow along with his muscles with abnormally fast speed. His heartbeat thundering in his chest loudly that he swore Haibara or Hakase might be able to hear it. Then he realized it was beginning hard to breathe.

He trashed around as he grabbed the sheet tightly in his hands. He arced back and opened his mouth to let out agonizing scream, but there was no sound came out of his mouth.

It hurt, it hurt, it _hurt_ so much that he started squeezing his eyes tighter as the tears beginning to fall from them as well. It hurt, the pain was so unbearable. It was different in so many levels than the spasms he usually got when taking the temporary antidote. It was _worst_.

Was he going to die?

Was he dying…?

He didn't know the answer nor had the chance to hear the answer, because on that moment his vision was blurry then his world went black.

He woke up twelve hours later. His body ached, his mind was still hazy, and he couldn't quite recollect what had happened. When he glanced down he realized that he was once again had became a teenager named Kudo Shinichi.

' _It worked! The permanent antidote worked!'_

Before he had a chance to celebrate, Haibara suddenly came in. She declared she wanted to begin her inspections. And so she began to do some simple tests, just like a doctor would do to him all the while writing at her clipboard, for about three hours.

"Haibara, how is it?" Shinichi asked as he sat on the futon, still not being allowed to move around much.

"Your brain functions normally. There isn't any memory problem as well. Your organs are fine, no damage or complications. Though, there are some little problems," she replied while looking at her clipboard. "Your height measurement is still the same as before you shrunk and unsurprisingly you are underweight."

"Okay… What else?"

"I'm afraid your body isn't going to be as strong as before. Just like I told you, the side effect already messed up your immune system."

Shinichi kept silent, because he didn't know what to say to that. He understood the consequences and he already accepted it. It was a price he needed to pay to get back to normal. Yet hearing it now, when he was in his rightful age, it was kind of different.

"I think you already know this… Kudo-kun, you shouldn't reckless anymore during cases. You need to take care of yourself more carefully."

A faint smile formed in the dark-haired teen's lips. "I know, Haibara. Thank you."

It couldn't be help if he wouldn't be the same as before. Right now the most important thing was the antidote had worked and he lived…

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.

.

Shinichi pulled back from his thoughts as the yellow beetle car finally stopped in front of the train station. He got out of the car with Hakase and Haibara following soon after. He opened the baggage and took his luggage and satchel out. After a while he finally stood in front of Haibara and Hakase who looked at him beside the car.

"Haibara, thank you," he said with a small smile of gratitude.

He didn't need to explain what he meant by that 'thank you', because he knew she knew what he meant. It was stand for a lot of things she did for him, mainly the final antidote she made that brought him back to his normal body.

"No, I'm the one who should say that," Haibara replied back. "Thank you, Kudo-kun."

And he too understood what she meant by that.

"Well, thank you for both of us then." He looked at Agasa-Hakase. "And thank you for the drive, Hakase."

"It's fine, Shinichi-kun," Agasa-hakase said. "Take it easy and don't push yourself. Just call if you need anything, I will try my best to help you."

"Yes, I will. Don't worry."

He said his goodbye then went inside the train station.

The place was packed with a lot of people, hustling and bustling around. Shinichi walked around the crowd of people carefully, making his way to the platform after bought his ticket. Fortunately he didn't need waiting long for his train to arrive. In about five minutes later the train screeched into a gentle halt. The door slide open and people rushed to get inside.

After got into one of the car, Shinichi chose to sat at the seclude area by the window. His luggage was put on the shelf above his seat while his satchel bag rested on his lap. He glanced around at the few passengers that littered the car. So far no one was looked suspicious and none of them so much as glanced his way, everyone mined their own business as usual. He couldn't help but sighed in relief, hoping there wouldn't be any cases on the train.

The train began picking up speed along the track as it slowly leaving Beika into its new destination. For a moment he looked out the window watching the city fade into the distance, then took out a mystery novel from his bag. It was a goodbye gift to Conan from Mitsuhiko, a new released mystery novel from equally a new author as well.

Shinichi didn't give much high expectation about the story, but he would still try it anyway. At least it would be enough to keep him busy for about an hour or two until the train reached the destination. And maybe it would turn out to be an interesting mystery novel. He opened the first page and began reading it.

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.

.

"Next stop, Ekoda! Ekoda!"

Announcement for Ekoda Station could be heard from the intercom. The black-haired teen looked up from his novel, closed it then put it back on the bag. As much as he wanted to enjoy it a bit longer he didn't want miss his stop, besides he could just read it again later.

The train pulled into the destination station without any accidents. And for once, Shinichi felt it was like a miracle happening to him. After all he had never been able to go to any places without worrying about something might happen. Sure, he liked mysteries—whether it was murder case or not—but that didn't mean he liked the misfortune that befallen to the victims and their families. In fact, after many years as a detective, he felt wanting to just enjoy quiet moments where he didn't need to deal with the murder cases.

When the door opened, the dark-haired boy stood up and got out of the car with the other passengers. After struggling a little while he moved through the crowd in the train station, finally stepped out into the warm light of the sun. He couldn't help but breath out sigh of relief. It wasn't a long ride but the noisy atmosphere made him felt uneasy.

As he walked down the pavement his blue eyes saw a clock tower in the distance. Without he knew it he began walking toward the direction of the clock tower.

When he arrived at the park in front of the clock tower he let his eyes wandering around the area. It was a nice park. The trees, which mostly were sakura trees, hadn't been blooming yet but he could see some buds on their branches already. The park would be looking more beautiful when the flowers bloomed and he couldn't wait to see it.

He remembered he had only seen the clock tower once before, long time ago when he was still quite a newbie detective trying to gain trust from the police. Megure-keibu and some of the Division One trusted him almost immediately after seeing his work, but not the others. So when he heard there was a thief trying to steal the Ekoda Clock Tower, his first thought was that the thief definitely crazy.

' _How would he steal a tower? There was just no way,'_ he had thought.

But at the same time he thought that it could be a good opportunity to show his capabilities to Division Two as well. So he asked Megure-keibu to take him there too.

He set up a multiple traps for the thief and he was so confident he would be able to catch him immediately. However it turned out his opponent was a very clever one who able to get away from his grasp easily. Not only that, the crazy thief also successfully stole the clock tower with his own way.

That day he learned that the word "steal" was not always a bad thing. And he had to admit it had been fun battling the thief even if he didn't even know the thief's name.

But the most shocking experience was equally long time after that—after he had been turned into Conan—when he heard from Nakamori-keibu that KID tried to steal a clock tower once before. That was when he realized the crazy thief he fought before was Kaitou KID. Well, he supposed he shouldn't be surprised though, KID was indeed crazy and insanely genius.

"I doubt KID knew it was me, the detective who tried to catch him back then," Shinichi mused. "And…I don't think I'd be able to attend his heist anymore."

Glancing at the clock one more time he realized it was almost four o'clock. Deciding it was time to go, he began to walk down the sidewalk all the while taking out his phone. He looked around, checking the street direction then once again looking down to his phone for the navigation system. He still remembered the address of his new apartment—Tsukishiro Apartment in block 2, Building B, Room 221—he had come there before to arrange the place after all, but unfortunately he hadn't memorized yet how to get there.

Now though, it was a good opportunity to start memorizing. And with the navigation application as his guide it was going to be easier.

Following the street direction Shinichi reached the street where many small shops lined up along the way with a few people were milling about. He stopped at the crossroad, waiting the light to change before crossing the street. In the far corner of the street there was a small park with a public basketball court and a playground. Some teenagers around his age could be seen having a game there. He observed them for a second before turned left.

As he walked along the main street he noticed how different Ekoda was from Beika. The buildings, the streets, the transportation, etc. were still the same just like Beika or any other big cities. It was still quite noisy and busy as well. But somehow the air felt pleasant. There was a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere that seemed to be serene even. He didn't know why he felt like that, maybe because he was still new to the city or maybe because the city was just like that.

Crossing the street once again he resumed walking to the more residence area. After a few minutes he found himself staring at the five stories building with a small garden at the front. He climbed the stairs to the second floor then walked to the first room with a number 221 on the door. This was his new apartment. Pulling out a small key from his pocket he used it to unlock the door, stepped inside, and locked it again.

It was smaller if being compared to his house in Beika, but in his opinion it was a much more reasonable size for only one person living in there. The walls were colored in light blue and the curtains were white, making it felt like a cozy place with simple atmosphere. It was pretty bare but some furniture he need—like sofas, chairs, tables, refrigerator, television, bed, cupboard, bookshelves, and coffee maker—had been placed there a few days ago.

The living room and the dinning room were already being arranged nicely, courtesy by his beloved mother who insisted on organizing his apartment. The kitchen unfortunately hadn't been stock with food yet, but he already made sure to stock the coffee beans at least.

"Right, need to go grocery shopping," the detective said, letting out a sigh as he went to his bedroom. "I'll do that tomorrow."

His new room was a big mess with boxes could be seen littering the room haphazardly, an uncovered bed sat in the corner beneath the window, and several tools littering the desk. The room hadn't been organized yet because he refused to let his mother did that to him. Who knew what she would do to his room, he didn't want to risk it. Besides he had never paid much attention to design, decoration, or even luxury. He wanted it simple and comfortable, and had everything he needed.

Putting his luggage and satchel down beside the desk, he realized there was a thin layer of dust covering the furniture in the room—and maybe even all of the furniture in the apartment. It seemed he needed to do a quick clean-up before started unpacking and organizing his room.

It took quite some times for him to finish sweeping and dusting the apartment. Then finally Shinichi could begin to unpack his luggage and arranged his clothes into the closet neatly. For a moment his blue eyes lingered at his new school's uniform, a midnight blue gakuran. It was nice, albeit very different from his old school uniform, not only from the type of uniform but also from the color.

After it was done, he opened one of the boxes which containing his novels, arranging his books on the bookshelves on the corner of his room orderly. He didn't bring much, only some mystery novels like Sherlock Holmes, Detective Samonji series, Ellery Queen's novels (gift from Hattori Heiji), and other novels he got as goodbye gifts.

Glancing toward the window, his blue eyes saw the last traces of sunlight disappeared slowly as the sky gradually turned black. It was night already, no wonder he was tired. Shinichi set down his cell phone on the nightstand then plopped himself down on the bed, feeling exhausted.

' _A new city and a new school… Hopefully it would be a new beginning as well…'_

With a lot of new faces and new places, hopefully in Ekoda everything would be different for him. Hopefully tomorrow would be the new day for him in his new school, Ekoda High School, since Teitan High School was no longer the place where he belonged. (That was the main reason he had decided not to bring his old uniform with him, he didn't want to dwell on the past.)

He closed his eyes and within a few minutes he drifted off to sleep.

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.

.

It was a beautiful night. The sky was dark but filled with stars glimmering like millions diamonds. A cool spring breeze flew through the air, bringing leaves of the trees with it. A tiny glow appeared from the shadows of the trees. It was a butterfly. A blue butterfly flew around in the air gracefully as if dancing with the wind. A faith blue glow could be seen following its wings in every movement. The butterfly was shining, even without the light of the moon that was shining in the night sky.

Suddenly the blue butterfly moved down and landed on the railing of a balcony.

Beyond the balcony was a dark room. But with the moonlight shone through the slits in the middle of the white curtains in the window, it was enough to see inside of the room. Peeking through the window, the butterfly could see its only occupant. A boy with black hair was sleeping soundly on his bed.

Blue wings flapped a few times. With a beat the blue butterflies took off, flew straight towards the moon above in the sky. And then in the blink of an eye it vanished, seemingly disappeared like a mirage.

* * *

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2: Crossroad of the Destiny

**Midnight Madness**

 **Disclaimer** : Detective Conan and Magic Kaito belongs to Aoyama Gosho. Persona Series belongs to ATLUS. The author owns none of the characters and places that appear in here.

 **Pairing** : KaiShin, HakuAo

 **Rate** : T

 **Genre** : Supernatural, Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Friendship

 **Note** : English is not my native language, so I apologize for spelling and grammar errors. And you don't really need to know Persona Series and its characters to follow the story.

 **Summary** : Kudo Shinichi moves out to Ekoda in the hope of a new beginning and everything would be different for him. But the changes that happened are nothing like what he had been expecting. Not necessarily bad changes at all, just…out of the ordinary.

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 **Chapter 2: Crossroad of the Destiny**

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The light of the sun slipped through the white curtains of the window, fell right into the closed eyes of Kudo Shinichi. Its warmth was enough to wake him up from his slumber. But he hadn't opened his eyes yet, instead using his hands to avoid getting hit by the light. After a while the boy shifted a little; rolling over to lie on his stomach as he buried his head into his pillow.

Beep… Beep… Beep…

The shrill ringing of his cell phone forced Shinichi to finally open his eyes. Glancing to the light peeking through his balcony sliding window, he noticed it was morning already.

"What time is it…?"

He reached his phone on the nightstand. One miscall from Haibara, definitely it was her way to wake him up. The clock on the screen read 06:50. He groaned. It was too early. It was far earlier in the morning than he felt like waking up. She was in Beika and still able to torment him.

' _I swear she's really a devil's spawn!'_

But then again, today was his first day in his new high school and first day of a new school year as well. He couldn't afford getting late, first impression was important after all. Not to mention he also still needed to buy something for breakfast. So maybe she only wanted he didn't come late for school?

Sighing, he dragged himself out of the grasp his warm and comfortable bed. Grumbling as he made for the bathroom to get ready. After a quick shower and changed into his gakuran, he walked toward the kitchen to start the coffee maker. Haibara kept on saying coffee wasn't a good choice for his stomach early in the morning, but in his opinion if it could keep his eyes open then it was more important. Besides he didn't drink it that much, he had been toning it down ever since he came back after all.

A ding from the coffee maker pulled his attention to it. Shinichi moved to take the pot and poured some into his mug. Taking one of the supplement tablets, he gulped it down and then sipping his morning coffee with a content smile adoring his face, enjoying it.

When he finally glanced at his wristwatch, it already read 07:27.

' _It's time to go,'_ he thought to himself, locking his apartment before heading out.

His first morning in this new city was a nice one. The sun was shining the world in a soft warm glow and the fresh air filled with scent of the spring. And the trees that were planted symmetrical along the street, giving the town a much more pleasant atmosphere, he supposed. Now, as he headed towards the more metropolitan areas, he realized people already milling about in the street at this hour. No one gave him more than short glances when he passed by before going about their business without a care.

The detective glanced around as he began thinking what kind of food should he have for breakfast. He saw a Chinese diner across the street and a fast food restaurant not too far away. He wasn't a picky type so anything would be fine as long as it filled his stomach, yet he still needed nutrition for his body. He lightly shook his head; those two options didn't seem to be the right answer. If his memory wasn't wrong, there was a curry shop near the corner of the street. Though, he doubted eating curry was a wise option for his stomach as well.

' _Hmm…maybe I'll just stop by the convenience store. Got a sandwich or an onigiri, or a cheap bento box just like what I usually did back then.'_

The aroma of baking bread that wafted into the streets making him paused in his mid-step. He glanced at his left. There was a small shop with a green door and glass window right beside it which displaying a lot of different types of cakes and breads. The shop's name, "KARAN bakery", was engraved in a simple wooden plate being shaped a loaf of bread nailed right above the door. Overall the shop could be safely called modest.

Shinichi walked up to the front door. The bell chimed as he opened the door and stepped in. The aroma of freshly-baked bread reached his nostril. It felt warm, soothing, and sweet. And suddenly his stomach growled in agreement. He blushed slightly then let his blue eyes wandered around the place, grateful no one was around to hear it.

Inside the shop was as simple as its outside appearance. There weren't many shelves and tables around. But there were a lot of various cakes and cookies—butter rolls, raspberry breads, muffins, cheese cakes, pancakes, raisin breads, walnut cakes, montblancs, and even chocolate cakes—being displayed nicely. On the wall beside the display case there was a white paper with "Half Price for Children under Ten" written on it, which suggested the shop got a lot of children as costumers as well.

"Welcome. May I help you?"

The detective turned to the source of the sound.

There was a young man with snowy white hair and red eyes appearing from what Shinichi assumed where the kitchen was. He wore a white long-sleeved shirt beneath his beige apron and a pair of black pants. There was a tray of cherry cakes in his hands. He smiled warmly at Shinichi before walked up to one of the empty shelves and put the tray down.

Upon closer inspection there was a reddish scar under his left eye and around his neck, which made the dark-haired boy wanted to ask what had happened to him, because frankly those scars didn't seem to be normal. It was different than a burn scar that usually left ugly mark on the skin. It didn't seem to be swelling either. Instead it seemed to have emerged from the inside of the veins, inside of the skins.

' _How did that happened?'_

Shinichi wanted to ask but then changed his mind, forced down his curiosity right away. It was rude to suddenly asking many questions to strangers outside of cases. Besides he came to the bakery for the cakes, not to start interrogation on a whim just to satisfy his curiosity.

"I want to buy some cake for breakfast," Shinichi said after realizing he hadn't answered the waiter's questions yet. "Do you have lemon pie?"

"Yes, we have lemon pie. But you need to wait for it to be ready in a few minutes."

"Oh, it's fine. And, can I eat it in here?"

"Sure. You can wait your order at the table on second floor," the waiter said while gesturing Shinichi toward the stairs near the counter.

Shinichi nodded then climbed the stairs. There was a green door on top of the stairs. He opened it and found out that apparently it was leaded to the rooftop of the bakery. The place looked bare, apart from a round table and four chairs which were situated on the corner near the railing. From here he could see the clock tower in the distance clearly. He approached the table then sat on the one of the chair, setting his bag on the other chair.

After waiting for about two-three minutes, the white-haired young man returned with a tray of a cup of tea and a piece of freshly baked lemon pie.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," he said as he made his way to the table, carefully setting the tea and the lemon pie down on the table. "Enjoy your meal."

Shinichi thanked him then raised the rose-patterned teacup, smelling the fragrant aroma of black tea. He took a sip at the tea. It wasn't his preferred drink but it was warm and smelled nice. Then he lifted a spoonful of lemon pie into his mouth. His blue eyes widened in surprise. It was more delicious than anything he had ever tasted. It had a delicate taste and the texture was excellent. The detective liked it instantly. He liked this bakery as well.

And above anything else he liked this calm and nice morning. Everything felt perfect. He wished it was a sign that moved to Ekoda would be the right choice.

.

.

.

Ekoda High School was located in the middle of the city with the front gate faced the main street. Some trees and other greenery that could be seen adorning the courtyard were neatly trimmed, a sign that they were being maintain properly. The main school building was quite large with glass windows which glittered in the sunlight. There were a sport field and a large gymnasium which also serves as an assembly hall.

' _Basically this school is no different than any other public schools,'_ Shinichi thought as he pocketed his phone back.

He took a glance around and saw a steady flow of students was walking toward the school while chatting animatedly with laughter and smiles. They were ignoring Shinichi, or maybe just didn't realize his presence who standing in front of the building, but once they passed him somehow they stopped for a while, giving him a slight stare before resuming and whispering to one another. Another group of students passed by, talking to one another in hushed tones while looked at him nervously as if expecting him to suddenly jumped on them.

Shinichi blinked in confusion. He didn't understand what was happening. Were they afraid of him or something? Was there something on his face? He checked his reflection on the glass window as he stepped into the building. No, there wasn't anything on his face. Nothing was wrong with his uniform as well.

' _Then why…?'_

The detective shrugged it off, and instead focused on changing his outdoor shoes into his indoor shoes in the locker room. He looked around with his blue eyes once more.

Students could be seen loitering around the hallways with their friends, chatting animatedly. Some others, who preferred to stay inside their classroom, sat by themselves with their phones in hand or formed small groups of two or three while doing whatever they interested in. Everyone seemed to be focused on their own business. At least, that was, until Shinichi started walking toward the end of the hallways where the stairs was.

All of a sudden the long corridor felt quieter than before—though there were still minor giggles and whispers in here and there. Apparently the students had begun to talk in hushed voices.

"Don't you think there is something different about that guy?"

"Did he change his hairstyle or something?"

"Really? He didn't seem that different."

"It's quite difficult to explain what that difference is—anyway, just feels different."

"You know, maybe 'the start of the year' thing?"

"I bet this has something to do about his plans again."

"Now that you mention it, he's looked a bit thin than before."

And once again, Shinichi felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck as he noticed the students' eyes shifted on him. All of them casted worried glances to his direction. He hoped fervently that it was just a curious interest in a new transfer student. But he was more baffled when his gaze accidentally met some of the students' and they averted their eyes hurriedly instead, while some others only smiled at him awkwardly.

With his fingers tightening around the strap of his bag, he went up the stairs as fast as he could without raising suspicion. He had been here before when he needed to finish some paperwork for his transfer, so it wasn't that hard to make his way around to the faculty office. It was located in the second floor which was right beside the principal office.

The detective took a deep breath then knocked on the faculty room's door. Opening it, he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The room looked quite messy in general with a lot of documents, books, folders, and other things littering the desks. There were bookshelves, a television, some couches, and steel filling cabinets in the corner.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Higurashi-sensei," he said politely.

A woman with long bluish-black hair looked up from her folder then stood up abruptly from her desk when she spotted him. The books in her hands fell into the floor with thunderous thud. The noise brought attention from the other occupants of the room, who also abruptly stopped doing whatever they were doing before he came in. The whole room seemed to come to a grinding halt as they all stared at him with pale faces as if he was a ghost.

' _Strange,'_ Shinichi thought.

"Y-yes, I'm Higurashi. Can I help you?" the woman asked him anxiously.

"I'm Kudo Shinichi, the transfer student. The principal told me to come to see you for the schedule," he explained.

Somehow she looked relieved after hearing that. The other teachers gave a sigh of relief as the color of their faces gradually returned to normal too. He swore he even heard some of them quieted an "Oh, thank God!" under their breath.

' _Really, what's wrong with the teachers?'_

Come to think of it, a few days ago when he came to fill in the paperwork for his transfer, the principal gave him a strangely wary look as well. And this morning when he came to school, the students' reactions when they saw him were weird too. Not to mention the whispering and pointing he got. Was it just him or the whole school were the weird one? Or…did they read something weird about him in the newspaper?

No, that was unlikely. Haibara or Agasa-hakase at least would tell him if there was something on the news that he didn't knew of. Still, he couldn't help but felt uneasy.

Ever since he came back there were some persistent reporters kept on hunting him down, asking his whereabouts for the past two years. They only gave up after his parents gave explanation that he had been with them all this time, travelling around the world while helping the police solved a lot of cases in secret. It was a necessary alibi, since his involvement on the takedown of the Organization had to be kept quiet for his own safety and everyone around him.

Higurashi-sensei started rummaging her desk drawer, searching for something. After a while she took out a student ID card, a small handle book, and a piece of paper.

"Kudo…kun," she said a bit hesitantly. Her brown eyes once more glanced back at the student ID card in her hand as she compared between his face and the photo on it, as if she made sure it was indeed him. "You are from Teitan High School, right?"

"Yes."

"This is your schedule and your student ID. Welcome to Ekoda High School, Kudo-kun."

"Thank you, Higurashi-sensei." Shinichi took them from her then put them on his bag.

The teacher gave him a small smiled. "I already heard from the principal about your reason for transferring here. I won't tell the other students about it so you won't feel uncomfortable, but if you wish to tell them yourself I won't stop you."

"Thank you for your consideration."

"You're welcome," she replied while picked up her fallen books quickly and began gathering some papers neatly. She placed them underneath her arm then glanced at the clock in the wall. "Well, class is going to start in a few minutes… Let's go to your classroom together."

Shinichi nodded and followed her out of the faculty room.

The bell already rang by the time they walked through the corridors. So there weren't any students loitering around, and Shinichi couldn't be more grateful than that, he really didn't want to experience all the stares again. Soon, they reached their destination. Higurashi-sensei stopped in front of the closed door of the class 3-B, looking around nervously and examining the door closely before she turned to him.

"Alright, I'll come in first and then you'll be afterwards," she said to him then walked through the door, leaving Shinichi in the hall alone. "Settle down everyone!"

In the classroom, the chattering had been ceased and the students of 3-B assembled to their seat immediately. They got up and bowed in unison then sat down again, looking at the teacher with mild interest.

"Hello class. My name is Higurashi Kagome. I teach history and I will be your homeroom teacher this year. I hope we can get along!" she greeted cheerfully. "Also, today we have a transfer student who recently moved into Ekoda just as of yesterday. Be nice to him, okay? Please, come in."

The door slid opened and the said new transfer student walked in.

A still silence fell across the room instantly as all of the students' attention was directed at the dark-haired teen that stood in front of the classroom. Then, gradually, there were whispers filling the once quiet room. Some students began fidgeting in their seat, whipped their heads around to look at the other side of the class beside the window. Several of them had an utter horror look on their faces while the others only looked confused.

"Is it a joke?"

"Did he manage to clone himself or something?"

"Doppelganger?"

"No way. This might be another trick, right?"

"Unknown twins, maybe?"

"Oh no! We're doomed."

Shinichi wrote his name in the blackboard, raising an eyebrow when he heard those whispers. Just what were they talking about? He really didn't understand. When he turned back around, facing the class, he tried his best to dismiss the gaping students. For someone who wanted to stay out of sight as much as possible, he knew in this kind of situation that was just asking the impossible. But still, he hoped they just stopped staring at him.

"My name is Kudo Shinichi, I'm from Beika. Please take care of me," he introduced himself and gave a short but polite bow to the class.

Another thick silence sat upon the room uncomfortably until suddenly Higurashi-sensei clapped her hands, catching everybody's attention and breaking the stillness.

"Since Kudo-kun is new to this school unlike the rest of you, it is only appropriate for someone to show him around. Would anyone like to volunteer?"

No one seemed interested as they tried their best to avoid the teacher's gaze, doing as far as pretending to be busy taking out their books or didn't hear her question. Except a girl with messy brown hair who suddenly shot her right hand up eagerly, catching everyone's attention.

Shinichi's eyes widened when he saw her. In his logical mind he knew that no, it couldn't be Ran who was still in Beika and went to school at Teitan High School. But…no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, he couldn't stop a pang of sadness that appeared in his heart. Therefore, he shook his head lightly, took a small deep breath discreetly, and tried to keep himself calm down—because panic would only make things worse.

"Yes, Nakamori-kun?"

"Aoko doesn't mind showing Kudo-kun around, Sensei."

The girl named Nakamori Aoko who sat in there bore a physical resemblance to his childhood friend. Though, now that he looked closely, he realized there were some differences. For one, her long brown hair that flowed past her shoulders was shorter and messier that Ran's. Two, her eyes were deep blue in color. Three, she was obviously shorter than Ran. And four, she had a distinctly childish speech pattern.

"Thank you, Nakamori-kun. Please do it latter after class." Higurashi-sensei turned her attention to the transfer student once again. "And since the only empty seat is behind Nakamori-kun, why don't you sit over there Kudo-kun?"

The dark-haired boy nodded, slowly began making his way down the aisles of desks toward the only empty seat. Several students still stared at him but he ignored them, he was sure they wouldn't interest in him after a while. That was why he just sat down and pulled his books and stationary out of his bag.

Unexpectedly the brunette girl sat in the desk in front of him turned around, surprising him a little. She looked at him and smiled sweetly. For a moment her figure overlapped with Ran's figure in his vision, making his eyes widened slightly. And for the second times this morning, his heart felt a pang of sadness which he couldn't prevent from appearing.

"Aoko's name is Nakamori Aoko. It's a pleasure to meet you," Ran's looked-alike said to him.

Her words pulled him out of his thoughts. He blinked and forced down the sadness in his heart. Now was not the time to be thinking of such things. No, it was definitely not what Shinichi needed right now.

"Ah, pleasure to meet you too, Nakamori-san," he replied politely.

The girl shook her head. "Just Aoko is fine, Kudo-kun. Being called _Nakamori-san_ only makes Aoko sounds like Aoko's dad."

"Are you Nakamori-keibu's daughter?"

"Yes. That's why just call Aoko, Aoko."

"Okay then, Aoko-san."

Aoko nodded then turned away to pay attention to the teacher who ordered the class to keep quiet as she began the lesson for today. Shinichi stared at the back of her for a brief seconds before shook his head lightly when once again her figure overlapped with Ran's figure in his blue eyes.

' _No. There's no more looking back, only forwards.'_

There was no need to keep on dwelling on the past. He didn't want to think about those things. He really didn't need his mind playing trick on him, especially right now when he finally was back to his own life and could attended high school like other normal teenagers. This was what he wanted and it was enough—despite deep down knowing that it would never be enough, far from enough.

Nonetheless, Shinichi opened his notebook and grasped his pen. Keeping his mind of from those memories he didn't want to remember, he began studiously taking notes while listened to the lecture.

.

.

.

The rest of the morning passed quickly. Before anyone knew it, the bell signaling the end of class—as well as the school day—had ringed loudly.

"All right, that's it for today. Normal classes will resume tomorrow," Higurashi-sensei said while she gathered her papers and prepared to leave the classroom.

Shinichi sighed out of relief. He got to admit he had forgotten how tiring school could be, especially in high school. But at least it was certainly much better than sitting around and pretending to pay attention to subjects he had no interest in, like what he did when he was Conan. The lessons he got today were easier since it was only the first day, though it didn't change the fact it was a nice and exciting experience.

The chair in front of him screeched as its occupant was standing up calmly. Nakamori Aoko turned around and looked at him with a smile that printed on her face. There was a mysterious light which glinted in her eyes that made the dark-haired boy wondered what was on her mind.

"Are you ready?" she asked suddenly.

He blinked confusedly. What was she talking about…? Oh right, he almost forgot Higurashi-sensei asked her to show him around school. The detective nodded curtly before packing his things just like what his classmates did.

"Does Kudo-kun have any other plan today?" Aoko asked as she waited for him.

"No."

"Oh, in that case, want to eat lunch together with us?"

She said _us_ , as in with her friends. It could be girls only, and wouldn't that be awkward if he was the only boy in her group of friends? But if it turned out wasn't just the girls…usually it would turn into a group date instead. It had happened to him before after all. Well, not that he minded either way. It was just lunch, and judging from her demeanor, she genuinely wanted to help him adjusted to the new environment.

Even so, he wasn't sure about accepting her invitation. With his luck, he might be run into some cases on the way. He didn't want to get his soon-to-be-friends involved, yet he couldn't find it in himself to refuse. He was admittedly never good at interacting with people. He wasn't good at using his words when it came to in this kind of situation. Nonetheless, that didn't mean he wanted to sound like treating someone he just met for the first time coldly. Nakamori Aoko was a nice and friendly girl after all. He needed to reject her politely.

Shinichi shook his head with a soft smile, "No, it's fine, I don't want to impose."

"Don't worry… Aoko is sure they won't mind."

"But I need to stop by the convenience store to get some foods, drinks, and other things. I just arrived yesterday and I haven't got any chance to stock my refrigerator."

"Then why not let us help Kudo-kun out as well? It will be much easier with a lot of people than alone, right? The more the merrier."

' _That was true, but still…'_

"It's better if you just give up and let her do what she wants," a voice suddenly piped in.

While Aoko didn't react to it, Shinichi went still for a second when he heard that voice. It was unfamiliar yet familiar voice at the same time—like he had heard it numerous times before but couldn't exactly pinpoint it. Slowly he turned his head to glance up, only for his breath got caught as he saw the boy who stood beside her.

The boy had a tall and lean body, and a face that eerily looked similar to Shinichi—no, upon closer inspection he had some noticeable differences. His facial features were slightly sharper. His hair was dark brown and more messy, like never being introduced to a comb. His eyes were indigo with a tint of violet—a very unusual color and Shinichi felt like he could see a hint of mischief and laughter in them, like they could see right through him.

"Hello there, I'm Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you," his looked-alike said as he flashed a grin at Shinichi. He held his right hand in front of him then a yellow rose appeared in his hand with a flick of his wrist.

Shinichi blinked then took the flower hesitantly. "Likewise."

Now he had somehow understood why the students and the teachers looked at him weirdly this morning. Perhaps they were mistaken him for the magician. Although he still couldn't quite grasp as to why they had that kind of reactions—pale faces, wary looks, nervous glances, gaping stares, awkward smiles, and quiet whisperings. Personally he didn't think Kaito was a delinquent or even the type to bully others. He seemed nice enough.

"So, about lunch… How about we go to the café in front of the bookstore?" Kaito suggested.

"Kaito said that just because he wants to try this week's new dessert menu, right?" Aoko asked suspiciously. "Well, Aoko doesn't mind we go there as long as Kaito doesn't mind Aoko invites Hakuba-kun too."

"What? Why him?"

"Because Aoko said so." Her gaze wandered around the back of the classroom before a bright smile formed on her lips. "Hakuba-kun! Want to have lunch together?"

Not long after that, footsteps of a person walking toward his desk from the back could be heard. And then a blonde boy with familiar face was standing beside his desk.

"Yes, I would love to, Aoko-san," the blonde said in a smooth voice before turned his attention to him. "Pardon my rudeness. My name is Hakuba Saguru. I'm a detective just like you. It's a pleasure to meet you, Kudo-san."

It took a moment for Shinichi to come back from his mild surprise. He had heard that the British detective attended school in Japan starting about a little more than two years ago, but he hadn't expected it to be in Ekoda. He had thought it would be in some elite school in Tokyo. So, meeting him here and becoming his new classmate surprised Shinichi.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Hakuba-san."

"Well, shall we get going then, Kudo-kun?" the brunette girl asked.

He glanced at the clock in the wall then around them, noticing their classmates already began leaving their desks and the classroom. However there was still a few numbers who still lingering about while talking with their friends. Though, then he realized that most of them actually pretended to have interest in other things like phones or books while eavesdropping on them.

"Um… Aoko-san, I'm sorry I have to decline your offer. I'm not that hungry and—"

His phone made a beep noise, interrupting him. Shinichi gave apologetic smile to her before took it out and found a new message from Haibara who warned him not to skip lunch just because he was busy adjusting with his new life. The dark-haired boy was a little taken aback. How did she know he was about making some excuses? He didn't know Haibara could be more creepy than usual. With a small sigh, the phone was shoved back in his pocket.

"I don't think…it's a good idea. To have lunch together…with me, I mean."

"Why not? Come on, it'll be fun!" Aoko replied, her eyes were clearly saying she wasn't going to let go even if he came out with some other smart excuses.

"Like I said before, I need to do grocery shopping."

"We don't mind helping out too. Right?"

Aoko looked at Kaito and Hakuba for confirmation, smiled sweetly. But the two boys knew behind that smile there was unsaid threat, daring them to say no to her. They exchanged a quick glance with unspoken agreement—something that almost never happened before in their lives—before their eyes landed again on the girl.

Hakuba nodded stiffly. "Yes, it's fine, Kudo-san."

"Besides we can help you looking around the town as well," Kaito added.

"See? They don't mind it," the messy-haired girl said with a triumphant smirk.

Shinichi stayed still for a moment while contemplated his options once again.

All this time he had always been glad when people just left him alone and let him lived a peaceful life on his own way. He didn't mind being alone, but after a long time he found those line of thinking only made him felt lonely.

Back then in Teitan High School, he never really had any friends aside from Ran and Sonoko. The others, who being called friends, were actually only classmates, club-mates, merely acquaintances, or even no more than just clients. People just didn't understand him and didn't even try to understand him. Only a few who made an effort to try and befriended him despite his personality, namely Ran and Sonoko.

Still, with Ran and Sonoko, who he knew from a little kid, he couldn't help but felt not that close to them as well. He couldn't help but felt he didn't have any real friends. And that incident two years ago… only made him beginning to wonder what it was like to be surrounded by friends who accepted him for who he was. Deep down he knew all this time he just wanted to live a normal life just like the other, even if only for once.

Therefore the question remained… Was it a right choice to just accept her invitation despite knowing the possibility of running into some cases?

If he was being honest with himself, he was aware it was his chance to get some friends. Didn't he already say that he wanted to start over in Ekoda? It was a good opportunity. Besides it wouldn't do any good if he just brushed off people who had tried to befriend him, not to mention it would made him looked rude.

"So…?" Aoko prompted softly.

After letting out a small sigh the dark-haired detective gave the messy-haired girl a resign nodded. Just like Kaito said before, she wouldn't just back off no matter what he said. Her persistence was just like her father who stubbornly never gave up on catching KID even after failed in doing it for so many years. Shinichi definitely didn't want to challenge her determination. It wasn't worth the effort.

"Yay! Let's go!"

Once Aoko knew she had won, she dragged the three boys out of the classroom with a big victorious smile on her face. Ignoring the other students in the hallways, who stared at them with gape mouths most likely because they saw Kaito and Shinichi's similar faces, she began the tour around Ekoda High School in high spirit.

.

.

.

About twenty minutes later the four third-year students left the school ground and headed toward the shopping district. They walked through the hustle and bustle of the crowd of people in the sidewalk with Aoko and Kaito acted as their self-proclaimed guides. Both of them were explaining, pointing, and commenting various shops and many eating establishments when they came into few, and sometimes Hakuba would give his two cents as well. On the other hand, Shinichi just followed them silently, just basking in the feeling of having friends again after such a long time.

Last time he hanged out with friends and having fun was when he was Conan. He could relax and everything, but it still didn't feel the same. Because the _friends_ he had back then weren't even in the same age as his actual age, they didn't have the same mindset and mentality as him. They were felt more like younger siblings he never had, whom he needed to constantly babysit around.

People said communication was the key in any relationship. Unfortunately he wasn't very good at communicating with others, and for that reason, he spent most of his time alone. Right now though, he felt comfortable talking and walking with his new classmates. Perhaps because Aoko and Kaito were good conversationalists, that was why they could make Shinichi—and by extension Hakuba too—didn't feel like being left out.

And if people looked at them right now, he was sure they might think they had been friends for years, when in actuality they had just met this morning.

They strolled around a bit when the convenient store finally came into view. The four teenagers went inside and promptly helped Shinichi picked up snacks, microwavable meals, some cup ramens, various breads, cereals, fruits, and some drinks. Even Aoko gave him pointers and lent him a hand on which kind of food he should pick.

After spending some period of times, finally the four of them exited the store with all sorts of shopping bags and groceries in their hands.

"Is it really fine Kudo-kun doesn't buy any ingredients and such?" Aoko asked, glancing at the contents of the shopping bags with a frown.

"It's all right. I got plenty enough food for a couple of days anyway," Shinichi responded as they walked down the street near the intersection, "Besides I can't cook."

"Eh?" The only girl of the group went silent for a moment before turned to look at him with a soft smile. "Then how about Aoko makes some receipts of delicious foods for Kudo-kun?"

"But wouldn't that be too much trouble for Aoko-san?"

"It's fine, it's fine! Aoko's happy if she's able to help Kudo-kun. Aoko knows a list of simple yet tasty food which easy enough to cook even for first timers like Kudo-kun. Not to mention it doesn't need a lot of time to make as well." She glanced at Kaito's direction. "Although, Aoko doubts that the receipts will work for Kaito. He's a disaster in the kitchen."

"Hey!" Kaito shouted in protest.

"What? Aoko still remembered the cake monster incident Kaito made back then."

"Cake monster?" Shinichi asked curiously.

"It was originally a normal cake. However when Kaito was the one who created it, somehow it turned into a strange creature instead. Huge, black, ugly, rubbery, and just like…oh well, a _monster_. No one dared to take a bite at it."

"How did that happen anyway?"

"Back then when Kaito was a little kid, Chikage-san—Kaito's mother—once asked him for help in the kitchen. They were making a chocolate cake. Everything was fine at first, but when she just took her eyes off for a second… before anyone knew it, the oven was already on a huge fire and the counter was such a mess with spilling batter and flours," she explained, giggling a little when she remembered it.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow. "So there's something he doesn't good at, after all."

"Fortunately Chikage-san was able to extinguish the fire so the kitchen itself was still intact, though the oven needed to be replaced. She didn't seem to be mad. However ever since then she banned Kaito from doing anything in the kitchen, especially cooking," the girl continued.

"It wasn't my fault the cake ended up in a failure," Kaito grumbled.

"It wouldn't be a failure if Kaito followed the instructions perfectly fine."

"It was the receipt which in the wrong one. The instructions weren't clear enough."

Aoko rolled her eyes when she heard that. "Yeah, sure."

The conversation came to a halt as they finally stopped in front of a two-floored building in the corner of the street.

It was a house with red tiled-roof, brown brick walls, and two windows on either side of the double wooden door. A wooden board being shaped like a leaf with the words "Gardenia Café" engraved in an elegant writing could be seen above the entrance. Some pure white tables were placed in the outdoor seating area with four matching white chairs for each table. A bunch of gardenia bushes could be seen adorning the front yard. There were two types of flowers that bloomed in them: one with white shade and the other had a yellow tinge near its base.

They entered the café and were greeted by the enticing aroma of the tea and coffee blending pleasantly with the sweet fragrance of the gardenias which being dotted around the room. Aoko walked toward the table near the large window looking out the side garden, plopped down in one of the chairs. The three boys just followed her silently.

After a moment a waitress came to take their order. They flipped the menu open, except Hakuba who was ordering right away without looking at the menu.

"Sandwich and gardenia tea, please," Hakuba said to the waitress.

"Beef steak, special dessert menu, and one hot chocolate, please," Kaito said after a minute.

Putting down the menu, Aoko turned to the waitress. "One omurice, one strawberry short cake, and one anmitsu, please. As for the drink…gardenia tea as well."

"Gardenia tea?" the dark-haired teen asked quietly.

"It's the café's famous original tea. It's good. A lot of costumers always order it when they come, because apparently gardenia tea could help to relieve congestion and also detoxifies the blood," the brunette girl replied. "How about Kudo-kun tries it too?"

"Thank you, but I prefer coffee." Shinichi flipped the menu a few times then closed the menu in his hands. "I'd like to have one lasagna and one black coffee, please."

Time passed slowly as they waited for their order. Shinichi took the opportunity to examine the interior of the café around him.

The room was spacious with light brown marble floor and ceiling. There were some flower paintings adoring the walls in here and there. And just like in the outdoor seating area, all of the tables and chairs were white in color. A beautiful chandelier in flower shapes was hanging over the direct center of the room. The place was beautiful and gave off a relaxing atmosphere. No wondered a lot of people chose to have lunch here, including students of Ekoda High.

The waitress came back a few minutes later, setting their food and the drink down on the table.

"Itadakimasu," they said in unison and began to eat.

Shinichi was about to bite his lasagna when his blue eyes found a large amount of ice cream on the table in front of Kaito who sat beside him. It seemed to be the new dessert menu this week Aoko talked about. He shook his head, just by looking at the dessert he felt his teeth ached in pain.

"Are you really going to eat all of that ice cream?" Shinichi found himself asking Kaito all of sudden.

"Huh? Yes?" the magician responded, looked puzzled.

"With that amount of ice cream you eat, you could get diabetes, you know. I recommend limiting the amount of sugars you consume from now on or your sugar intake is going through the roof and you're going to get extremely sick. It won't be a wonder if you get fat. Maybe not now, but once you pass thirty…certainly you'll be an obese. Or…develop diabetes first, which could lead to die an early death."

There was a clattering noise as Kaito's utensil hit the plate all of sudden. His messy-hair classmate looked at him in scandalized horror, which the dark-haired detective realized it was only for a show.

"Ugh, my heart!" the magician cried in pain suddenly, put a hand on his chest dramatically as if he was being stabbed by a knife. "What a withering assessment! I could feel my heart wilted slowly when hearing it, just like maple leaves falling to the ground on autumn night."

Somehow Shinichi regretted saying those comments just now. Aoko, who sat across from him, sighed tiredly, knowing it would come to this. And Hakuba, who sat beside her, only spared them a glance before continued eating silently.

"Sorry about that, Kudo-kun," the brunette girl said, looking apologetically at him, "Kaito's just a _very_ dramatic person."

"Hey, Kudo," Kaito called, "Have you considered joining the journalism club? Because I think you could be a good critic. They'll appreciate your help for sure."

No one noticed Shinichi's hand froze for a second when he heard that word: critic.

" _A thief is a creative artist who takes his prey in style, but a detective is nothing more than a critic who follows our footsteps…"_

The thought snuck into his head before he could stop it. It was a simple word that could be use by anyone and on anyone, but it held a different meaning for him. That word held a memory, not a precious one but still important enough for him. It was a memory of his first official meeting with a certain phantom thief on the rooftop of Haido City Hotel.

' _There's no point in dwelling on that, though, is there? Because I couldn't attend his heist anymore—at least not as Kudo Shinichi.'_

"What that has to do with being a critic, Kaito?" Aoko questioned with curious eyes.

"Well, you do hear the comments he has for me, right? The journalism club's lacking on a sarcastic and spicy remarks like that. They're too dull."

She rolled her eyes. "Speaking of club… Are there any school activities Kudo-kun may have an interest to?" Suddenly the inspector's daughter's gaze was on him. "There are a lot of clubs in Ekoda High to choose and club activities happen after school. Joining a club was voluntary, but students can become a member of more than one club."

She pulled out a stack of paper and slipped them across the table to Shinichi's direction. The detective took it. Upon looking at them he realized they were flyers of the clubs. There were literature club, manga club, anime club, journalism club, chess club, shogi club, cooking club, soccer club, baseball club, basketball club, swimming club, volleyball club, kendo club, art club, music club, choir club, drama club, science club, etc.

"Why did you have all the flyers when you're not a member of any clubs, Aoko?" Kaito asked, "I thought only club members and Student Council that normally doing the advertising part."

Aoko smirked a little. "That was _usually_. Aoko is the only exception though, since they asked Aoko if she could help out advertising them among the students and she accepted it."

"Even though you're not a member of any clubs?"

"Even though Aoko's not a member of any clubs."

"Have you forgotten the Student Council didn't accept your club application?"

"No, Aoko still remembers it clearly."

"Club application…?" Hakuba muttered then paused for a beat as an epiphany dawned on him, "Oh. The KID Capture Brigade, I presume?"

' _KID Capture Brigade?'_ Shinichi thought as he listened to his friends' conversation.

He couldn't be helped but curious. Nakamori Aoko had wanted to make that kind of club? It was new for him, that apparently there was a girl who didn't like KID enough she wanted to capture him—considering the majority of female population was on KID's side. Maybe it was because she was the daughter of KID Task Force's leader; she got the same mindset just like her father.

The brunette girl only nodded, chewing her omurice slowly.

"I haven't heard anything about that after Aoko-san asked me to be one of the members. What had happened?"

"They rejected it," she replied quietly. Suddenly her lips shifted to a frown, she slump her shoulders in defeat. "Even though it was such a good idea, they rejected it right away. It's lacking in high school student character, they said. It doesn't have a genuine purpose and stable activity, they said. Clubs need at least five members and an advisor, they said."

"Wow, you really hold a grudge against them," the messy-haired boy muttered.

"Of course." She let out a soft huff. "However Aoko also can understand their reactions and reasons. They rejected it because they knew the teachers wouldn't approve as well. If Aoko is in their position maybe she'll do the same thing, that's why she decides not to get angry at them anymore. Despite everything, they're still nice people and so Aoko doesn't mind at all lending them her hands."

"Such a busy body."

Aoko shot an annoyed look at her friend.

"I do believe there's nothing wrong with helping them when they need it. Considering they're short on members at the moment, I couldn't even imagine how busy they're right now," the blonde detective said, putting his tea cup back on the table.

"Are you sure that's not because you're lack of imagination?" Kaito commented lightly.

"Kaito! Don't start it!" Aoko warned him with a stern look, like what parents did when they saw their child misbehaving. "Try not to pick a fight, please. Aoko likes this café; she doesn't want to be banned from coming in here. Kaito doesn't want to be banned too, does he?"

"What? I was just saying the truth."

"Behave or no dinner tonight."

The magician could only pout, staring at her like a kicked puppy. When the expression she gave to him didn't change even after a full minute, he sighed then ate his chocolate ice cream like a sulking elementary school kid, all the while mumbling something like "Ahoko's always threatening me with food", "Ahoko's always in Hakuba's side lately, and here I thought we're best friends", and "Ahoko got a bit too much exposure to a prick, I'm sure she had been contaminated".

Unfortunately Aoko ignored him, continuing with the conversation as if she hadn't been interrupted, "Anyway, did Kudo-kun join any clubs before?"

The dark-haired detective looked up when he heard her question.

"Eh? Ah, I joined soccer during middle school and in my old high school," Shinichi answered while put the papers down on the table, sliding it back to Aoko. "But right now, I don't think I have the time for some club activity. I want to focus on my study first."

She swallowed her food a bit. "It's okay, Aoko understands. Aoko, Hakuba-kun, and Kaito didn't join any clubs as well. So don't worry."

Shinichi nodded. He glanced at his left when suddenly Kaito got up from his seat.

"I'm going to the restroom," he announced before turned to the only girl in the group. "Aoko, you get an important task from me. Protect my ice cream from the others, okay?"

Aoko rolled her eyes at his antic. "Please. No one's going to steal Kaito's ice cream."

The magician only grinned then went to the direction of the restroom. The other three continued to eat their lunch while talking.

"He really likes ice cream, doesn't he?"

"Especially chocolate ice cream," Aoko clarified, smiling fondly.

"By the way, Kudo-kun's old high school… It was Teitan High School, correct?" Hakuba inquired suddenly.

"Yes," the dark-haired detective responded with a nod.

"Teitan High is a ladder school associated with Teitan University, right? It's kind of an elite school as well," the brunette girl chimed in. "Aoko heard their students always guaranteed to able to get into famous universities, even the oversea ones."

"Yes," Shinichi agreed before looking at Aoko for a second before going back to his food. "Some of the former students even got scholarship in Harvard University."

"Wow! That's so cool!"

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you transfer school to Ekoda?"

Shinichi resisted the urge to flinch when he heard that question. He knew sooner or later someone was going to ask him that. He took a sip of his black coffee before answering.

"I was absent from school for a long time because of some family circumstances and it caused my attendance record to be bellow average—way bellow average actually. Teitan High allowed me to get away with only exams and a lot of homework. However according to the rules I would still need to repeat from the first year of high school, if I wished to keep attending there," he explained with a faint smile.

His two friends were silent for a few seconds, absorbing the information.

"That's kind of extreme," Aoko commented softly.

He shook his head, "It's not that bad. At least they let me transfer school if I want to be able to graduate at the same year as everyone."

"Then why did Kudo-kun choose going to Ekoda?" she asked, titling her head to the side.

"Is it because of the school's rules?" Hakuba put in. "Ekoda High has some unusual rules. One of them is that allowing the students not to attend classes as long as their test marks are above average. That's one of the reasons I chose to transfer there, since my detective work sometimes required makes me go to various places and once on a while I have to go back to London too."

"I—" Shinichi began but stopped immediately.

Why was it again he chose coming to Ekoda?

Heiji had invited him to come to Osaka, coaxing him to transfer into Kaihou Academy—he said so they could go to school together like normal best friends would (Shinichi had no idea where the Osakan got that idea from). The Hattori family didn't mind taking him in as well for the duration of his study, so he didn't need to rent an apartment. However he had declined it right away. When Heiji asked him why, he had said that was because Osaka was _too far_ from Beika. Yet as he said that, he couldn't help but questioning himself if that was indeed the case.

' _There were a lot of other high schools in Tokyo. No need to go all the way to Osaka, right?'_ he had said to himself, because he knew with his brain he could take any entrance exams of any schools he wanted—it would be as easy as walking in the park.

But still, it couldn't be because of the distance. If that was the case, Haido High School in Haido city was more reasonable choice if he was considering the distance—the city was next to Beika after all. Ekoda on the other hand wasn't that near to Beika. It was still in Kanto area, however it was at least one or two hours ride by train from Beika.

In the end, Shinichi wasn't even entirely sure why he chose to come to Ekoda.

"I don't remember what it is," Shinichi admitted, "It's just… Well, given my history with the previous one; I know there're not many schools will accept me willingly as a student. I think I just prefer to transfer to the one which accept me unconditionally."

"Aoko thinks the teachers already said it to Kudo-kun, but… Welcome to Ekoda High School, Kudo-kun," the brunette girl said with a warm smile.

"Thank you, Aoko-san."

Suddenly there was a thunderous crash of plates and utensils falling to the ground from the table across from them, earning attention of the other costumers and the waiters. The three students turned to look, just in time as a woman with long black hair fell to the ground and screams of panic erupted in the once quiet and serene café.

The two detectives shared a glance then nodded in understanding.

' _Apparently some things just never change.'_

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

 **Note** :

About **KARAN bakery** : It is a small bakery shop from anime No.6 (first appeared in episode 2), opened by Karan—Shion's mother—in a corner of Lost Town. Shion is the young man with snowy white hair and red eyes that served Shinichi. Personally I like the bakery. When first time I saw it I thought, "Ah, what a warm place." I didn't know why I thought that.

About **Higurashi Kagome** : She is the heroine from anime Inuyasha (first appeared in episode 1). I borrow her to be the history teacher and homeroom teacher of class 3-B since I'm not comfortable at creating some original characters on fanfiction.

About **Gardenia Café** : It is a fictional café I made up.

And thank you for all the reviews and favorites and to everyone who following the story…


	3. Chapter 3: Broken Bonds

**Midnight Madness**

 **Disclaimer** : Detective Conan and Magic Kaito belongs to Aoyama Gosho. Persona Series belongs to ATLUS. The author owns none of the characters and places that appear in here.

 **Pairing** : KaiShin, HakuAo

 **Rate** : T

 **Genre** : Supernatural, Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Friendship

 **Note** : English is not my native language, so I apologize for spelling and grammar errors. And you don't really need to know Persona Series and its characters to follow the story.

 **Summary** : Kudo Shinichi moves out to Ekoda in the hope of a new beginning and everything would be different for him. But the changes that happened are nothing like what he had been expecting. Not necessarily bad changes at all, just…out of the ordinary.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Broken Bonds …or Gardenia Café Murder Case**

* * *

The sound of the classical music could be heard softly from the speaker, providing a nice back-sound to fill the cafe with its beautiful melody. The waiters and waitresses were busy delivering the orders with tray in their hands, while the customers were laughing and eating without a care in the world. In one of the table, three people that consisted of one young man and two young women could be seen ordering their food to a waiter.

The bell above the door chimed, causing the woman with long black hair glanced up from her menu. She let out a sigh of disappointment as she saw four teenagers walked in instead of the person she had been waiting for. The teenagers took the table near them and she couldn't help but noticed that two of them had a strikingly similar face.

' _Twins?'_ she wondered.

She closed the menu and turned to look at the door when once again it was being opened by someone. A smile grew on her lips when her navy blue eyes saw a young man with dark grey hair stood there uncertainly while his eyes scanning the room. The man smiled the moment their gaze met and then he walked toward their table.

"Hello, everyone. Sorry to have kept you all waiting," the young man apologized.

"Don't worry, we just came here too," the woman replied with a smile.

The man bent down to kiss the woman with long black hair and she kissed him back. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted one of the presumably twins—the one with neat hair—ducked his head quickly, hiding his face behind the menu in his hands. No doubted he had accidentally looked at them when they kissed. She couldn't stop an amuse smile that began to form in her lips.

' _How cute.'_

"Mou… Yuuko, Gorou-san, get a room already," the woman sat beside her protested in teasing tone. She had short brown hair and olive eyes. "It's in a public place you know. Give us a bit consideration, please…"

"Then, how about Chie goes out with Fukazawa-kun?" Yuuko suggested.

"Eh!? Stop joking around, Yuuko. I don't want in any relationship at the moment."

"Why not? Just give it a try. Fukazawa-kun, you didn't mind Chie, right?"

The black-haired man in black-rimmed glasses that was in front of Chie only smiled awkwardly. Gorou shook his head then sat down across from Yuuko, calling a waiter to take his order while the other three began to chat casually. The topic of their conversation varied from work, family, hobby, food, and even pointless things.

A few minutes later the waiter came back with a tray full of their order, interrupting their conversation. Yuuko took a sip of the gardenia tea she ordered before making a face.

"Here," Chie said as she handed Yuuko her blueberry drink after that took the tea from her hand. "You never like tea, why did you ordering one?"

"Just curious. It's popular anyway."

The brunette rolled her eyes at her best friend's habit. Yuuko drank the blueberry drink as the others began eating their food. She grabbed one of the waffles on the large plate in the middle of the table, choosing to try the one with blueberry jam and whipped cream on top. But then suddenly the woman paused in mid-chewing. She grabbed her forehead as she a burst of pain shot through her temple and her vision was blurring.

"Yuuko," the brunette called, looking at her friend worriedly, "What's wrong?"

"Are you not feeling well?" Gorou asked, pausing on his chosen waffle—the vanilla one. "That's why I told you not to overwork yourself."

Yuuko flashed them a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I'm just feeling a bit dizzy."

Chie didn't seem to be convinced but didn't pursue the matter.

"Do you want some vitamin pills? I have some in my bag," Fukazawa offered kindly.

Receiving a curt nod from her, he took his bag and pulled out a small transparent bottle with small white pills inside of it. Two pills were dropped on her waiting hand. She gulped them down and drank her juice. Her eyebrows furrowed as she had some difficulty in swallowing her drink, like having a lump in her throat.

A second later she dropped her glass to the ground, splattering her drink all over the floor. A strangled sound escaped from her mouth, her eyes widened, and her face was becoming pale. She tried to stand up but found herself stumbled forward instead. Dizziness sweeping over her at alarming rate, she reached out for anything to stabilize her as her knees buckled. Her sudden movement accidentally tipped the plates and the utensils at the edge of the table falling onto the floor, shattering them with thunderous crash.

People turned around to look at the source of the sound and saw the black-haired woman withered in pain with her hands grasping her throat. The atmosphere was becoming tense as the seconds ticked by and her body suddenly went limp as she fell to the ground. Screams of panic from the woman's companions and the others erupted in the once quiet and serene café.

"Yuuko!" Chie cried out as she got out of her seat to approach her.

She kneeled down beside Yuuko's limp body then shook her shoulders lightly, trying to wake her up. She kept shaking her and calling her name several times. But her effort was futile as the black-haired woman still didn't make any move, showing no reaction at all. Her stomach dropped, olive eyes went wide in shock as the realization slowly sank in. Grief settled in her, she sobbed quietly as tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks.

"Yuuko…," she called quietly.

"Please, move aside for a bit," a polite voice came from behind her.

The brunette turned to the side and spotted a blonde teenager in midnight blue gakuran stood beside another teenager with black hair in the same uniform. The blonde gave her a tiny smile as their gaze met. He helped her got to her feet, pulled her away from Yuuko gently, leading her back to her seat while the dark-haired boy kneeling down next to Yuuko with a grim expression.

The Detective of the East placed his index and middle fingers against the woman's neck, checking for the pulse. He couldn't help but sighed in relief when his fingertips found pulses still in there—since he had been expecting to find none, like many other times before—though, her weak and rapid pulses were a bit concerning.

"She's not dead." Shinichi said to the British detective who crouched beside him.

Hakuba nodded, and then began to inspect the woman too.

She was only unconscious. She still had pulses, despite it was weak and rapid ones, and her heart was still beating. She was pale, her skin was cold when being touched, indicating her body temperature was lower than normal. There wasn't any purple coloring her nails or any almond scent from her, which meant she wasn't poisoned by cyanide. Though, that didn't necessarily mean she wasn't poisoned. There was always the possibility she had been poisoned from other types, like nerve poison for example or other mundane things that could be poisonous.

Suddenly his brown eyes were wide when he realized her chest didn't rise and down like normally did. He lowered his head to listen for a breath and found none.

"She's not breathing," Hakuba told him urgently.

The blonde rearranged the woman's position on the floor quickly. She had a respiratory arrest so he should to perform CPR on her. His mind summoned up the most important aspect of CPR; such as few interruptions of chest compressions, a sufficient speed and depth of compressions, completely relaxing pressure between compressions, and not ventilating too much. Other than that, he needed to be more careful because women have a higher risk of sternal fractures than men.

"Call an ambulance and the police!" the dark-haired detective ordered to the victim's companions. He stood up and looked at all of the occupants of the room who mostly had alarm expressions. "There's a possibility she's been poisoned. Until the police arrive, no one's allowed to leave the café!"

A quick scan of the room showed that the announcement made everyone shock and nervous but they didn't dare to make any move and kept in their spot. The cooks got out of the kitchen then took some empty seats with the waiters and waitresses. On the side, Shinichi could see the victim's companions wore the same expression on their faces, one of worry, as they looked at their friend lying on the ground.

The brunette woman from earlier sat quietly with tears trickling down her cheeks as her olive eyes locked on the victim. Obviously she was worried that the blonde detective might do something wrong to her friend. The grey-haired young man stood by her side while put a hand on her shoulder, tried to comfort her silently. The young man who had black hair and dark brown eyes behind a pair of old fashioned black-rimmed glasses still held his cell phone in his hands. Even though he was the one who had called the ambulance and the police, he looked unsure of what to do in a situation like this.

' _It's understandable. Who would think that there will be a murder case when having some lunch with friends in a nice afternoon?'_

Well, maybe only Shinichi and other detectives.

The Detective of the East shifted his gaze to Nakamori Aoko. The lively girl had gone quiet and the color had drained from her face. She looked visibly shaken. Her hands that rested on her knees were clenching her skirt tightly. Her gaze focused on her unfinished omurice however not really seeing at it. Sometimes she would glance at the victim but quickly looked away a second later, unable to gather her courage despite being curious about the case. Even though fortunately the victim wasn't dead, a case was still a case.

It reminded him too much of Ran's reaction the first time they stumbled across a corpse. The karateka had been caught up in murder cases he got dragged into for numerous times already—both when he was as Shinichi and Conan—and by now, she was no longer shock anymore when looked at them, just slightly surprise. He wondered, would Aoko become unshaken by the deaths as well if she kept hang out with him? How many cases would be needed to change her reaction?

' _No, I don't want to change my new friend like that.'_

Shinichi shook his head, decided not to think about it at the moment. Speaking of new friend, where was Kaito? He frowned as he realized the magician hadn't come back yet from the restroom. What took him so long? Did he get stomachache or something?

Oh well, not his problem. He had his own problem after all—there was a case he needed to solve. The Heisei Holmes turned his gaze to focus on Hakuba that still on the ground, performing CPR on the victim as an emergency procedure. He knew Hakuba's capabilities on cases as he had met him before during his Conan days, so he wasn't worried about the victim's safety. Although he hoped the ambulance would come here as soon as possible, because her life was in danger if she didn't receive treatment immediately.

Apparently his pray was heard since the medical team finally arrived approximately five minutes later. Working methodically and carefully, they took some evaluation on the victim before put on an oxygen mask to her face and applied other the necessary procedure. They moved her onto a stretcher and quickly transported her to the hospital which wasn't far away from the café.

"While we wait for the police to arrive… How about we process the interrogation on the victim's friends first, Kudo-san?" Hakuba suggested suddenly as he turned to face the three young adults still sitting at their seats. "Let's listen to their circumstances."

The only female of the group blinked in confusion. She had stopped crying once the medical team arrived to take care of her friend.

"Interrogation?" the black-haired man repeated.

"Don't worry… The three of you are just witnesses until farther investigation," Shinichi added in, "Just think of it to fill the time until the police get here."

"Just who do you think you are, ordering people around like that?" the grey-haired man asked, eyeing the two teenagers suspiciously.

"Hakuba Saguru, detective," the blonde replied calmly. "And he's Kudo Shinichi, the Detective of the East," he continue while gesturing to the dark-haired boy besides him.

The three of them was surprised when they heard that. A second later they had a thoughtful look on their faces as they looked at the two detectives doubtfully. Then they glanced at one another and nodded their heads in silence agreement. Hakuba took a step and pulling out a small brown notebook and a pen from his pocket.

"First of all, may I know the victim's name?" Hakuba inquired.

"Her name is Kido Yuuko," the brunette replied.

"And you are…?"

"I'm Tanuma Chie. Yuuko is my best friend since childhood. We work together in GBC 39 before I quitted two weeks ago after being accepted as an employee in an online shop company." Her eyes were looking down at the ground when she remembered what had happened just a few minutes earlier.

"GBC 39?" Shinichi asked.

"It's a hamburger shop in Shibuya. Yuuko are the cook and I used to be the cashier."

"It's a pity, really. We never thought that Tanuma-kun would resign all of sudden like that. The customers really liked new ideas for the shop you and Yuuko came up with," the grey-haired man interjected. "Oh. I'm Ishizu Gorou. I'm Yuuko's boyfriend and manager of the GBC 39."

"Do all of you work at the same place?"

"No, I'm a middle school teacher," the man in glasses answered. "My name is Fukazawa Yoshiki. I and Yuuko-san were classmates back in high school and university. She invited me to have lunch together with her boyfriend and best friend over phone this morning."

"She told me, actually she wanted to try out a new restaurant in Beika however when Gorou-san suggested we should tried the Gardenia Café in Ekoda, she changed her mind and agreed to him," Chie explained. "We decided to meet up at Ekoda Park so we could walk from there together. But Gorou-san was late; we had to wait for him several minutes at the park before Yuuko got a message from him, telling us to go there first. It wasn't the first time he came late, so we used to it."

"Before we went to the café we decided to walk around the shopping district for a while," Fukazawa informed them, resuming their story. "I was afraid we would be lost since we didn't know the area. But Yuuko-san kept saying it should be okay."

"Yuuko's always like that. She's easily curious about her surrounding," Chie said fondly.

"Ishizu-san, may I know why were you late?" the blonde interrupted.

The man chuckled a little and scratching the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

"It's rather embarrassing, actually. My car is quite old and I don't have enough money to buy the new one. This afternoon when I tried to start it up, the engine didn't want to turn on. I was forced to change my plan and used train instead. I knew I would be late, so I send a message to Yuuko about it," the man explained. "My car always messes up my schedule unexpectedly, especially during important appointments like dates."

"Why did you suggest the café then?"

"Some of the customers recommended it to me, saying something like it's a good place for a date. I thought Yuuko would like the place."

"So, is it your first time to come here?" Shinichi asked.

The three witnesses gave him a nod.

"Is there anyone you could think of who would want to hurt Yuuko-san?" Hakuba asked, "For example, someone who held grudge against her personally?"

Chie looked up in shock. "Why do you ask us questions like that?"

"Forgive me, it's just a part of the procedure."

The woman clamed down a little and shook her head, "No. Everyone likes her."

"Yuuko-san is a very nice person. There's no way she'd be hated," Fukazawa replied.

Gorou nodded in agreement, "Yuuko's a kind girl."

The British detective opened his mouth to ask more questions but closed it again when suddenly he heard the police sirens roared loudly in the street, coming closer to the café. He and Shinichi shared a look. It was about time the police would take over the investigation of the attempted murder case—if it turned out wasn't an accident instead.

.

.

.

The bell above the door of the café chimed as the door opened, revealing a stout man in a light brown trench coat and a matching fedora. The mustache man walked in with the air of authority, followed immediately by a short-haired young woman and a kind-looking young man. He looked around the place with sharp eyes before his gaze met with the Detective of the East.

The man turned to the forensic team and gestured them to start checking the area thoroughly. Next he glanced at the other officers, silently ordering them to begin questioning the witnesses, and then he approached the crime scene calmly.

"Megure-keibu, good afternoon," the young detective greeted politely.

"Good afternoon," he greeted back, "I didn't expect to see you here, Kudo-kun."

Shinichi gave him a weak smile, already used to the sentence that being said to him numerous times. It was just a coincidence—yet it was a bit too many to be called coincidence.

"I was having lunch with friends when suddenly one of the women at the table near us doubled over in pain and collapsed to the ground. We approached to investigate."

"We?"

"He means me, Megure-keibu," the British detective said, coming into view.

"Oh! Hakuba-kun's here too?" The inspector said in surprised.

The blonde nodded, "Yes, Megure-keibu. Kudo-san is my new classmate."

"I see."

The mustache man looked a bit too ecstatic when seeing the two young detectives in front of him. They didn't seem to notice his expression though, as their gazes were focus on the forensic team who working on the crime scene diligently. The man knew it wasn't an appropriate reaction to be had as he was currently at a crime scene. However he couldn't help it, especially at the prospect that the case might be easily solved with them working together.

"Did you two find anything?" he asked as he.

"We already did some questioning to the possible suspects, Keibu," the blonde answered. "The victim's name is Kido Yuuko, twenty three years old. The victim's companions are Tanuma Chie, Ishizu Gorou, and Fukazawa Yoshiki."

Sato-keiji who stood near them could be seen writing down the information on her police notebook quickly, while Takagi-keiji began asking the cooks and waiters on the corner of the room. Megure-keibu looked down at the mess near the table where there were dishes, juices, utensils, broken plates, and broken glass on the ground before pulling out his gloves and crouched down to inspect something on the ground.

"Apparently they met up at Ekoda Park to have lunch together, but Ishizu-san—Yuuko-san's boyfriend—was late. After waiting for approximately fifteen minutes later Yuuko-san received a message from him stating they should head to Gardenia Café first. The three of them decided to walk around the shopping district for a while, then they came to the café around 13:46, about a minute before us. Two minutes twenty seconds five milliseconds later Ishizu-san finally arrived."

The inspector couldn't stop himself from sweat-dropping when he heard that. He stood up and glanced around at the room, his gaze stopped at the three young adults sitting at different table than their initially had—since their table currently was being investigated by the forensic team, they weren't allow to go near it. Silently he took mental notes of anything unusual about them.

"Are they the victim's companions?"

"Yes."

"Did they do anything suspicious?"

"No, they followed our instruction obediently. And they didn't even approach Yuuko-san when she was on the ground. The only one who did was Tanuma Chie-san. However it was just a brief moment before I leaded her away from the victim."

"Roughly fifteen minutes after they began eating, suddenly Yuuko-san looked to be in pain and fell over to the ground. She lost consciousness right away. When we checked on her we found out she wasn't death yet, but it seemed she was poisoned with something that causing her to lost consciousness and had a respiratory arrest," the Heisei Holmes explained. "Hakuba-kun was the one who doing the CPR on her."

"So, where is the victim?" Megure-keibu asked.

"The ambulance already took her to the hospital."

"But we haven't heard anything about her condition," the blonde added.

"Keibu, the process of questioning the witnesses had already done," Takagi-keiji reported as he approached his superior and opened his notebook. "Apparently all of the staff of the café didn't know the victim and haven't even met her before. It seems she's a new customer of the café. The same goes for the other patrons. They didn't know the victim."

"To sum it up, other than the victim's companions, no one knew about the victim?"

Takagi gave him a firm nod.

"Very well. Now, let's listen to the victim's companions' circumstances about the matter."

Megure-keibu walked up to the table where the three of Yuuko's friends sat quietly, followed by Takagi-keiji, Sato-keiji, and Shinichi. The inspector stopped and took a glanced at Hakuba who didn't seem to make any move. At his questioning look, the blonde only smiled.

"It's fine, Keibu. I'll just listen to the investigation from here. I think Aoko-san needs someone to comfort her at the moment. It would be rude of me to leave her alone like that," he explained, his brown eyes shifted to a girl with messy brown hair.

With a short bow he went to the table near the window where the girl could be seen sitting silently. Megure-keibu, Takagi-keiji, and Sato-keiji did a double take when noticing that the girl was looked-alike to Mouri Ran.

"She's Nakamori Aoko, the daughter of Nakamori-keibu," Shinichi informed them.

The three nodded before resuming their walk to the table in the corner of the café, only two tables away from the table Hakuba and Aoko occupied. They could see three people sat in there.

The first was a black-haired man with glasses was looking at his phone with a frown while his hands were busy typing something—presumably email—on it. The second was a man with dark grey hair in from of him could be seen as the only one who seemed to be calm and collected enough as he waited his turn to be interrogated. And the last and only woman on the group was a woman with brown hair, had her olive eyes directed outside of the window with a worried look. When she noticed the police drawing near, she glanced up with a determine look.

"How is Yuuko's condition?" she asked right away while standing up. "She's going to be alright, right? She's not death, is she?"

"Calm down, Tanuma-san. We haven't got any call from the hospital. We'll definitely inform you when we get the news," Takagi replied, trying to calm her down.

The brunette sighed in disappointment and slowly sat back in her chair. "Yuuko is careless and has a curious habit on everything around her, especially the new foods. It's no wonder she becomes a cook, really. But I never thought Yuuko would suddenly collapse like that. What had happened to her? Did she really being poisoned?"

"We don't know yet. It'll remain to be a possibility until we find the proof," the inspector replied with a fatherly demeanor, seeing as the woman was still in shock state.

"Tanuma-san, you mentioned that Yuuko-san had a curious habit? Could you please elaborate it to us?" Sato-keiji inquired, holding her notebook.

"She likes to try out new foods and drinks she hasn't tried yet. Today too, she ordered gardenia tea just because she was curious about it despite not liking tea. Knowing her, she wouldn't even drink it. I had to order blueberry juice so she could just drink the juice and I could have the tea."

"Is she always like that?"

"Yes. She's my best friend yet she acts more like my overly-grown young sister."

"But she's a really kind-hearted woman, because she even approached a loner like me during first year of high school," Fukazawa cut in.

"That's why it's shocking news when those detectives," Gorou glanced at Hakuba's and Shinichi's direction, "told us she was poisoned. A nice woman like her… We would never think there's anyone who would want to hurt Yuuko."

"Keibu!" one of the forensic team called.

Megure-keibu turned to look at the man, "What is it?"

"The result of the examination is negative. There were no poisons detected in the food and drink. There wasn't anything on the plates, bowls, spoons, forks, or straws either."

"No poison?" Takagi-keiji repeated in surprise.

"Could it be that she already ate all of the poison?" Sato-keiji wondered.

"No, it couldn't be. She was still alive when Kudo-kun and Hakuba-kun checked on her right after she collapsed," the inspector interjected.

"Maybe the amount of poison being used on her was a small amount, not enough to kill her," Takagi put in, "That's why it wasn't working?"

"Or… it was actually something mundane that could be lethal?"

"For now! We need to resume questioning until we get the news from the hospital," the inspector announced in authority voice that held no argument, interrupting the two's conversation.

His announcement earned the attentions from all of the occupants of the room immediately as they turned to look at him. The police officers gave him unison 'Yes' at once. He let out a long sigh, rubbing his temples at the upcoming headache.

While the police kept talking to the witnesses as well as the possible suspects, Shinichi only watched the interaction silently. Putting his hand to his chin—his usual thinking pose—he took a moment to think about the details so far.

Logically speaking, the one who had a lot of opportunity to put poison into the victim's foods or drinks would be the cook and the waiters. However there were no traces of poison could be found from them nor their belongings, even the kitchen. None of them knew the victim as well, which meant they had no reason to try to kill her.

The next line of suspects would be the group who had been sitting with the victim—the other patrons didn't know the victim as they were merely bystanders. Other than them no one in the room knew about the victim. Plus they were the victim's friends; obviously they knew about her habit well enough to be able to plan her murder, which automatically could make them to be put on the suspects list.

' _But how did the culprit do it?'_

Forensic team said there were no poisons detected in the food and drink. There wasn't anything on the plates, bowls, spoons, forks, or straws either. Judging from that alone it was reasonable Sato-keiji thought Yuuko ate all the poison. However if we looked at the crime scene itself we would find that Yuuko hadn't even finished her food—a neapolitan—and only tried one of the assorted waffles, the blueberry one to be exact. The vitamin pills the victim gulped down during meal were only normal vitamin pills as well.

' _Did that mean the culprit put it on the victim without her noticing? Not the food but her person instead? Clothes for example…'_ the Heisei Holmes thought, examining the belongings of the victim's friends.

"Keibu!" called one of the police officer.

Megure-keibu let out a silent sigh before turned to his subordinate, "What is it?"

"We found a suspicious young man in the bathroom!"

"What!?"

Just then the door that leaded toward the bathroom swung opened, other police officer appeared into view while dragging someone with him. It was a teenager in midnight blue gakuran who had messy brown hair and indigo eyes. However what made Megure-keibu, Sato-keiji, and Takagi-keiji gaped at the boy was that he had a similar face with the Heisei Holmes. They had just met the Ran looked-alike not a long ago, and now Shinichi looked-alike…?

"He claimed he got stomachache and had been in the bathroom for quite some time."

"I told you I didn't do anything!" the boy yelled in protested.

Shinichi put a hand on his head. He had honestly forgotten about his new friend.

"Keibu, he's Kuroba Kaito, my classmate. He came with us to the café together," he informed the inspector immediately. "He indeed went to the bathroom before Yuuko-san collapsed, so he really didn't know there was a case."

The stout man nodded in understanding and gestured his subordinates to let the boy go. His gaze followed the teenager's movement as he went right to the table Hakuba and Aoko sat. Really, it only had been almost an hour since they arrived and the situation becoming even weirder. Not to mention the progress on the case was slow than usual.

"Took you long enough, Kuroba-kun," the blonde remarked suddenly.

"Wow. Your observational skills are as amazing as always," the messy-haired boy said sarcastically with a hint of smirk on his handsome face.

"Were you lost on your way to the bathroom?"

"How did you know I was lost? Did you secretly follow me around like a stalker?"

"Kuroba," the British detective hissed.

"I don't know what your problem is, Hakuba. I was only answering your question, wasn't I?"

Hakuba scowled and fixed his friend with a death glare that could make any criminals and normal people shivered in fear. Unfortunately it didn't work on Kaito who ignoring him—he was busy with his food and slightly melting chocolate ice cream. A light chuckle escaped from the brunette girl beside Hakuba, earning a puzzled look from both of her friends.

"Aoko and Kaito have been frequent customers of the café, Hakuba-kun. We always come here at least once a week for the dessert menu. There's no way he would be lost just from going to the bathroom," the girl said with a slight smile, looking better than before.

Kaito sighed and shook his head. "Aoko, he was being sarcastic to me."

The girl blinked in surprised. "Eh? Ah! Aoko's sorry then, Hakuba-kun."

"It's fine, Aoko-san," Hakuba replied with a small smile.

A deafening sound from Sato-keiji's cell phone shattered the silence in the room. The woman took the device out of her pocket nonchalantly as she didn't even realize the stares from all around her because of the noise. She walked to the more secluded area before pushing the answer button then raised her phone to her ear. After around a minute or so, Sato-keiji closed her phone with a snap then approached Megure-keibu. Her expression remained neutral.

"Kido Yuuko-san is going to be alright. She's still unconscious but appears to be stabilizing well," she reported to the inspector.

The three young adults at the table breathed a collective sigh of relief when they heard the good news. The police officers smiled in relieved too. It was like a heavy burden had been lift from their shoulders.

"The doctor said she wasn't poisoned, though. The cause of the victim's condition was due to allergic reaction," she continued, "An allergy to peanuts to be exact. They found the scent of peanut on her mouth."

.

.

.

Shinichi took a seat at the table where his friends were then run his hand through his hair, messing it up a bit. The police had just finished questioning the victim's companion. Apparently the three of them knew about Yuuko's allergic to peanuts. According to Chie, it had been a while since the last time her allergic acted up. The last time it happened was around half a year ago. Today though, somehow without realizing it, Yuuko had ingested some peanuts. Judging from her habit and personality, it was understandable, since she was quite careless.

' _Did she accidentally ingest peanuts on her way to the café then?'_ he thought.

Accidents could happen, the detective knew that. But this case didn't seem to be an accident. It was too neat; too many strange things to be called accident, because the hospital had informed them that they didn't find anything on the victim that had traces of peanuts. The only peanuts on her were only the scent of peanuts on her mouth.

' _Assuming it wasn't an accident, the problem was how did the culprit get it into her?'_

Her friends didn't seem to bring anything suspicious with traces of peanuts either—the forensic team had checked their belongings anyway. Did they already throw it away then? If that was the case, the police needed to search the area around the café thoroughly to find the evidence. Then there was another problem: what was the motive? They didn't give the impression to be having some trouble with Yuuko. They could just hide it though.

He was missing something. He knew it with absolute certainty but he had no clue as to what.

"Hey, the waffles they ordered… was it the assorted waffles?"

The dark-haired boy heard Aoko's question and looked up at her who paused on her unfinished omurice. After Kaito came back from the restroom, he had been trying to urge her to eat her food and it seemed to be working. She didn't seem to be as shaken as before too, especially after she heard Yuuko would be fine.

"I think it was," Hakuba replied uncertainly. "What about it?"

"The assorted waffles are an assortment of waffles with different toppings on each waffles that being put on the one big plate. Usually it's prepared in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, and honey with some powdered sugar on top of it. It was a new dessert menu a month ago. It's so delicious. Hakuba-kun and Kudo-kun have to try it. By the way, Aoko likes the strawberry waffle and the raspberry waffle."

"There aren't any peanut-flavored ones?"

The girl furrowed her eyebrows in thought then shook her head, "No. There is a waffle with peanut butter as topping but it's not on the assorted waffles list."

"I thought you like the honey one," Kaito piped in after finishing his ice cream.

"Yes, but the honey on them is way too sweet for Aoko's taste."

"Oh, right. You complained a lot about it, kept on saying _'everything Aoko ate taste like honey'_ and _'everything was smelled like honey'_ for days after we tried them out during spring break."

"It was the worst days for Aoko." The girl blinked confusedly when she saw something was missing in the table. "Where is Aoko's strawberry shortcake?" she asked then sent a look at her best friend, "Bakaito ate it, didn't he?"

"Where is your proof, Ahoko?"

"Aoko doesn't have it but she knows Kaito always steals Aoko's sweets so…"

The magician only smirked, causing the girl even more annoyed. He put on a handkerchief on top of Aoko's empty plate. With a flourish he pulled it away a second later. Suddenly her missing strawberry shortcake could be seen sitting innocently on the plate as if never been gone in the first place. The brunette girl huffed.

"See? I didn't steal it. Sometimes we don't see things that are right in front of our eyes, because we are not looking for them. Aoko thought the cake went missing, right? It did not though. You just didn't see the cake because you weren't actively looking for them."

"Well, okay it's not missing. But, it doesn't change the fact that Kaito hides it from Aoko!"

Kaito stuck out his tongue childishly. A second later Aoko grasped her cake and almost threw it at him but she refrained from doing so at the last moment. The two detectives' eyes widened as realization hit them then a smirk appeared on their faces almost at the same time. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room Megure-keibu could be seen standing beside Takagi-keiji and Sato-keiji. The three witnesses and possible suspects remained in their seat.

"So…did the forensic team find any peanuts on the food or drink?" the mustache man asked.

Takagi glanced at his notebook before answering, "Yuuko-san's food is neapolitan, the same as Fukazawa-san's order. There weren't any peanuts to be used as ingredients on them, and after examination there wasn't anything like that in there. Although there were some traces of peanuts could be found in the Tanuma-san's tea instead. It was a small number and barely in there."

All gaze turned to the short-haired woman who had a shock expression on her face.

"Gardenia tea doesn't use any peanuts, does it?" Sato-keiji inquired.

"No, it did not," Hakuba replied, getting out of his seat and walking toward them. "I'm a frequent customer of the café and I quite like the tea itself, so I know very well about it."

"What is it? Do you suspect me?" the brunette questioned.

"Tanuma-san. You said so yourself that the tea was originally Yuuko-san's, correct?"

"Yes. But as I said before, Yuuko didn't like tea. Even I thought it was weird of her to order it, no matter how curious she was. I didn't do anything to Yuuko. I only let her had the blueberry juice I ordered since it was her favorite. If I'm the culprit, shouldn't the peanuts on the juice instead of the tea?"

"That's true. However it would only work as long as we thought that the peanuts were ingested on Yuuko-san through food or drink."

The British detective looked around the room in general, assessing everyone's expression. He could see that the three suspects were nervous. Perhaps afraid on the prospect they would be falsely accused on murdering their own friend, or…one of them was indeed the true culprit.

"On the environment like restaurants or cafés, if there's someone suddenly collapsed or killed, people and the police will think it's because of some poisons. That's it at least until they do some examination and find that it's actually some allergic reaction. After that their focus will be on the foods and drinks which normally act as the medium of the killing method—by extension, the plates, glass, and utensils will be inspected as well. Usually because of that people accidentally dismiss something or overlook the other things that seem to be unimportant."

"Hakuba-kun, are you saying that it was actually an accident?" Megure-keibu inquired.

"No. It was indeed a murder case," the Detective of the East interjected. "Someone had ingested peanuts on Yuuko-san not long after she stepped into the café. The culprit had an _excellent_ timing, opportunity, and alibi when doing it, without anyone noticed. The reason why we couldn't find the method of the killing is because we accidentally dismissed it right away."

Shinichi stood up and approached them calmly. "The only one who could have given the peanuts to Yuuko-san was you, Ishizu Gorou-san."

"W-wait a minute! Do you suspect me now?" Gorou asked with a confused look.

"Ishizu-san, do you remember what time was it when you came to the café?"

"No. How do I remember something like that?"

"It was 13:48:20," Hakuba cut in coolly. "Yuuko-san and the other came to the café around 13:46. Two minutes twenty seconds five milliseconds later Ishizu-san finally arrived."

"Ishizu-san, do you remember what you did after you arrived?"

"I—" Suddenly the man stopped himself, looking uncomfortable.

"You kissed Yuuko-san right after apologizing for your lateness," the dark-haired detective answered his own question without waiting for the man to answer. "There's no need to deny it. After all I noticed the two of you do it. And I'm sure Fukazawa-san, Tanuma-san, and Hakuba-san saw it as well."

"Ishizu-san, the _real_ reason as to why you're almost always late on appointments is not your car, but because you did that on purpose, didn't you?" Hakuba questioned the man.

"I didn't. Anyway, how did I make my car broken on purpose?"

"What I mean is that, you were only _pretending_ to be late. Because if we consider the factors: one, Yuuko-san and the others who walked around the shopping district first before came here; and two, the train schedule to Ekoda from Shibuya… Ishizu-san, you should be half an hour late instead only several minutes. You never late, you were waiting the right opportunity while spying on them secretly."

"No one noticed him because no one was looking for him," Shinichi added in, "Yuuko-san was a curious type, so of course she was busy looking at her surrounding while Tanuma-san and Fukazawa-san made sure they weren't lost. He was there yet everyone thought he wasn't."

"Why did he do that on purpose?" Takagi-keiji asked suddenly.

"It wasn't the first time he did that, Takagi-keiji. Ishizu-san had been pretending to be late numerous times already, especially for dates he had with Yuuko-san—though, maybe the first times he accidentally did it. He did those in order to conventionally create a _fake_ habit that looked natural enough to be done without raising any suspicion. I bet she even agreed to it, after all it's a casual act for a couple to do."

"Kiss?" Aoko asked in puzzlement.

"Correct," the blonde replied with a nod.

"Is it wrong to kiss your own girlfriend?" Gorou inquired.

"No," the dark-haired detective replied without missing a beat.

"Then just what are you people talking about?"

"When a person intends to kill, they can kill with a kiss. If other people see you kiss Yuuko-san every times the two of you meet, they'll think it's just a habit you two have and won't question it any farther. _No one_ would even think you were ingesting peanuts on her when you two were kissing. People would overlook it even if they found out about the allergy she had. People would only think she accidentally ate some peanuts and her death would be ruled as accident."

"A perfect alibi," Hakuba cut in, "After all… A person can't die from a kiss, can they?"

"That was at least what he thought when he planned the murder of his own girlfriend," Shinichi continued, "He didn't even have to do it by force. He only needed to come late as usual, acted naturally, and no one would suspect him as the murderer."

Sato-keiji nodded in understanding, "So the reason why we found some traces of peanuts on Tanuma-san's tea is because Yuuko-san drank the tea beforehand."

"That's unfair for you all to accuse me like that. Do you have evidence?" Gorou yelled in anger, rising from his chair while sending a death glare at the detectives and the police officers.

The British detective smirked, "Don't worry, we have the evidences." His point finger pointed on Ishizu's pocket. "The ticket you bought at the train station… you used your train pass to buy it, didn't you? It was on one of you belongings. Perhaps you want to use it as proof that you indeed came to Ekoda by train, however it's a mistake. If we run an investigation on your train pass' history we would soon know whether you lied or not."

"Not to mention, you still have the scent on your mouth as well. You ate quite a lot of peanut butter, didn't you? To make sure Yuuko-san would die quickly," Shinichi put in. "If I'm not wrong, there was a bakery nearby—KARAN bakery—that sells a lot of various bread. Some of them are a peanut butter rolls and peanut cakes. The shopkeeper must remember him if we ask him about Gorou-san."

The dark grey-haired man was silent and didn't make any move. His face was frozen on a astonish expression. Megure-keibu made a move to the man but he stopped in his track when suddenly Ishizu Gorou let out a dry chuckle. Another dry chuckles came out of his mouth and increasingly becoming a loud laugh that filled the silent room.

Sato-keiji and Takagi-keiji looked alarmed. Immediately they stepped closer to him slowly—already used to the situation which leaded to the suspects going berserk on the police and innocent bystanders. If the situation came to the worst case of scenario they needed to act quickly and efficiently.

"As I thought it was bound to be like this someday," Gorou said as he threw his train pass to the table. "You're right, detectives. I'm the one who try to kill Yuuko. It's too bad really that she didn't die."

"Gorou-san, Yuuko seriously loved you. How could you try to kill her instead?" Chie asked in disbelief.

"I know she loves me and I know she's too kind-hearted for someone like me. However I also know she won't let me go even if I want to." The man sighed then looked at Chie with sadness. "Chie, actually I've loved you for some time now. When Yuuko found out about it she decided to play matchmaker for you and Fukazawa. She always invites me when she goes with you two to make sure I understand that I won't have any opportunity to make a move to you."

"Stop lying! Yuuko is not someone like that!"

"But that's the truth, Tanuma-san," Fukazawa interjected.

"Eh?" Chie breathed out quietly.

"Yuuko-san always told me that she wished I would be your lover because she thought I was a good choice for you. She didn't want you to choose a wrong person. She said she knew about your feelings for Ishizu-san but kept quiet about it. She said she was afraid that you would steal Ishizu-san from her. So when she found out about Ishizu-san's feelings as well… she was sad, desperate, but at the same time even more determine to get the two of us together."

"What is Yuuko thinking? She's my best friend and she really _really_ loves Gorou-san. I couldn't and wouldn't even think to steal him from her. I don't want to betray her trust on me."

"Ishizu Gorou-san, come with us to our office," Megure-keibu said as he approached the man who had frozen on his spot. "Attempted murder is a serious crime."

Takagi-keiji put on a handcuff on the man's wrists then leaded the culprit to the door. The forensic team put their equipment on their bags, while the other police officers leaved the café that had turned into an impromptu crime scene that afternoon to get the other evidences they needed. The inspector thanked the two young detectives and said his goodbye.

"Keibu, could you please conceal my name in the report as usual?" Shinichi asked, "I don't want the unnecessary attentions from the newspaper journalists."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll do that for you, Kudo-kun."

"Thank you." Shinichi smiled at the inspector.

"Why did you do that?" Hakuba asked when he heard the exchange.

"Because I just want to live normally in Ekoda."

The blonde gave him a wry smile. "I doubt _normal_ is the right word to use though, Kudo-san. After all normal is a relative thing in Ekoda."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

 **Note** :

About **chapter 3** : Firstly I want to apologize about the errors in the case that appears in this chapter. I don't have any medical knowledge and it's kind of hard to write down a case in that theme. I hope it turns out not too weird for the readers. Actually I want to use "Kiss of Death" for the title of this chapter. It sounds suitable for the theme of the chapter. But because that won't be vague enough I decide not to use it, maybe later.

About **Kido Yuuko** , **Tanuma Chie** , and **Ishizu Gorou** : They're not OCs. They are characters from anime Jigoku Shoujo (appeared in season 1, episode 8). I didn't change much on their dynamic, as Yuuko and Chie are indeed best friends.

About **Fukazawa Yoshiki** : He is a character from anime Jigoku Shoujo (appeared in season 1, episode 12). He is indeed a teacher in a middle school. Though, I don't know what kind of lesson he teaches.

And thank you for all the reviews and favorites. Thanks to everyone who is following the story as well…


	4. Chapter 4: Rhythm of Silence

**Midnight Madness**

 **Disclaimer** : Detective Conan and Magic Kaito belongs to Aoyama Gosho. Persona Series belongs to ATLUS. The author owns none of the characters and places that appear in here.

 **Pairing** : KaiShin, HakuAo

 **Rate** : T

 **Genre** : Supernatural, Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Friendship

 **Note** : English is not my native language, so I apologize for spelling and grammar errors. And you don't really need to know Persona Series and its characters to follow the story.

 **Summary** : Kudo Shinichi moves out to Ekoda in the hope of a new beginning and everything would be different for him. But the changes that happened are nothing like what he had been expecting. Not necessarily bad changes at all, just…out of the ordinary.

 **Note** : Thank you very much for those who have reviewed or favorite or followed this story so far. I'm so sorry for the long wait. Enjoy the new chapter. Please don't forget to review afterwards. Praise or constructive criticism are equally appreciated.

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 **Chapter 4: Rhythm of Silence**

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By the time the four teenagers walked out of the café, the sun had inched towards the horizon, beginning to paint the sky with shades of orange, red, and purple beautifully. It was a nice view, yet it was tainted by the tragedy that just happened in the Gardenia Café.

As his azure blue eyes turned to look at his friends, Shinichi couldn't shake the memories of the attempted murder that had occurred not long ago. The victim was fine, unlike the cases he had run into before. However, the fact that he had once again dragged other people around him into an unfortunate experience was not fine at all.

' _Maybe hang out with them was indeed a mistake,'_ he thought solemnly.

Hakuba Saguru was one of the famous high school detectives in Japan, therefore murder cases and the likes were normal occurrences to him. Although Shinichi doubted the blonde got into that much cases as he did on daily basis, judging by how much he called into the crime scene by the police instead of running into them. Still, he didn't feel that bad about involving him.

Nakamori Aoko and Kuroba Kaito, on the other hand, were _normal_ high school students. Even though Aoko was the daughter of Nakamori-keibu, that didn't mean she was familiar with crime scenes. Shinichi didn't know about Kaito, but he seemed to be the type that wouldn't cause trouble to other people, let alone hurt them. Which meant the two of them shouldn't get involved in those kinds of things since they didn't deserve it.

"Kaito is so unreliable! Where was he when the case occurred?" Aoko complained to the messy-haired boy who stood beside her. "Leaving Aoko by herself like that…"

' _Unreliable…? I'm unreliable too, aren't I…?'_

Shinichi's mind went back to the one scene he didn't really think much about it at the time; when Hakuba chose to stay by Aoko's side and listened to the interrogation instead of join them. It was understatement if he said he wasn't surprised by the other detective's decision—maybe because those kinds of acts were something never really crossed Shinichi's mind.

From his encounter with the British detective a few times before when he was still Conan, he had always thought the blonde's gentlemanly attitude was a bit annoying and pretentious, especially when he got too close to Ran—though the real reason was because Shinichi (or Conan, at that time) was jealous. Now though, he understood, those characteristics were what made Hakuba Saguru different than him.

Hakuba was a bit arrogant and overconfident on his deduction skills; however he didn't neglect his companions and didn't blindly pursue the cases like what Shinichi did. He knew that the cases were important and needed to be solved quickly, but he also knew when and where to draw the line. Unlike Shinichi who went alone solving cases and unwittingly neglecting his friends—even his _best_ friend—on the crime scene.

' _There was no point in dwelling the mistakes I made in the past, wasn't there?'_

No, there wasn't. Remembering those only made him felt more guilty. But at the same time they served him as a reminder not to make the same mistakes as before.

"I said I was sorry," he heard Kaito apologized once again.

The girl huffed. "Fine, Aoko will accept Kaito's apology if he gives her cherry cake."

"You just want to eat cherry cake, don't you?"

"What if Aoko says yes?"

"Eating that many cakes, I won't be surprise if you get fat."

"That's not possible! Aoko never gains weight!"

The girl sent her best friend an icy glare that seemed to be cold enough to freeze anything. Yet the messy-haired boy only tilted his head slightly before the corners of his mouth rose to form a smirk.

"Really…? I remember you told me you were dieting because you got some extra meat on your stomach."

Aoko blinked then her face was bright red. The memory suddenly came back to her that one time she said to him about her weight problem at school near the gym. She had thought that focusing on contracting her tummy muscles would help her predicament. It seemed to be working rather well, until suddenly Kaito made fun of her, saying that too bad it didn't go to her chest instead.

"W-well, that was because of meats, not cakes," she replied weakly, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Meats, huh?"

"A-anyway, Aoko doesn't want to hear that from someone like Kaito, who he himself ate a lot of chocolate ice creams and cakes. Kaito could get diabetes or become an obese, couldn't he? Kudo-kun even said so." The brunette glanced toward Shinichi and realized that he was lost in thought. "Kudo-kun…?"

Shinichi looked up when he heard Aoko called his name. He blinked when noticed that not only Aoko, but Hakuba and Kaito also turned to look at him.

"What's wrong?" the dark-haired boy asked.

"What's wrong? Kudo-kun spaced out for a second there. Aoko should be the one asking him that," she pointed out with curiosity laced in her gentle tone.

"Ah, sorry… It's nothing. Just tired," he answered with a false smile formed on his face.

She blinked at him for a beat then smiled. "Oh! In that case we should get going then. It's been a long day anyway."

"Indeed," Hakuba said in agreement. "I'm also a bit tired myself."

The blonde turned to Aoko then walked with her in the front line.

"Lies."

Blue eyes widened in shock and his body instantly stiffened as he heard that word. It was being whispered quietly yet loud enough to be heard only by Shinichi. He glanced at the perpetrator.

Kaito was walking beside him with his right hand stuffed on his pocket while his left hand held one of Shinichi's shopping bags full of groceries. He looked around his surrounding nonchalantly as if he hadn't just said that word to the detective, as if he hadn't saw through the Heisei Holmes, as if he didn't notice Shinichi's gaze on him.

"Oh right!" Aoko cried out as she seemed to suddenly realize something. She turned around to look at him. "Where does Kudo-kun live? Sorry, Aoko forgot to ask him about it."

"Tsukishiro Apartment in block 2, Building B, Room 221," he replied.

"Oh! It's not that far from here."

"Aoko-san, I'm sorry, but I think I could go home by myself."

"Hah!?" She opened her mouth but then closed it again. A thoughtful look appeared on her face and then she frowned. "Kudo-kun didn't want us to come to his home?"

"No, it's not like that. I just don't want to inconvenience Aoko-san, Hakuba-san, and Kuroba-kun any more than this. The three of you have done enough for me already. Besides I already memorized the way to the apartment myself—as you said before, it's not that far away from here—so I think it would be fine."

"Kudo-san, I don't think it's a wise decision, considering the groceries you must carry," Hakuba interjected, gesturing to the shopping bags which each of them carried one in their hands.

It was true he couldn't carry the four shopping bags by himself. However, no matter how hard it would be for him to do, he had to do it by himself if he wanted to keep his friends out of trouble. Who knew what would happen if they stayed together any longer than this. They might be dragged into another murder case or kidnapping or something—unfortunate events were never picky after all. If he would just end up running into misfortune events, he really shouldn't get the others involve because they didn't deserve it, especially Aoko and Kaito.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any proof other than just a foreboding feeling that appeared in his heart. Furthermore, he didn't know if telling them about it would be the best solution.

"It's fine," Shinichi replied with a reassuring smile. "I'll manage."

The only girl in the group offered him a small rueful smile. "Aoko's sorry. Kudo-kun must be uncomfortable about the prospect we will come into his place, mustn't he? He just came yesterday so Aoko should be more considerate about his situation."

"Don't apologize, Aoko-san. It's fine, really."

"But Aoko's worried if Kudo-kun goes home alone. He's new in Ekoda after all. What if he gets lost?" she asked in concern tone. "At least please let Kaito accompanies Kudo-kun. He can help him carries the groceries too." She turned to the magician. "Kaito?"

"Roger," he replied with a mock salute.

Aoko smiled then gave the shopping bag in her hand to him while Hakuba did the same thing to Shinichi. The four teenagers bid goodbye. Kaito and Shinichi saw the brunette girl grasped the blonde's arm unexpectedly and dragged him away, heading toward the opposite direction the two boys were going to.

The main road was quite noisy and busy with full of the usual traffic. In contrast, the two boys walked side by side along the street in silence. The messy-haired teen beside him was uncharacteristically quiet. It made Shinichi briefly wondered what the other was thinking. To be honest, he had his own problem to think about. There was still Kaito's quiet remark—"Lies."—earlier that bothered him. It wasn't particularly pleasant to think about the cause of it, though.

All this times he had masked his lies carefully, had restrained his emotions from letting it show on his face, so no one would be able to tell, especially during when other people asked his quietness after a case being solved. But Kaito had made that remark to him. Which could only meant that the brunette boy had been paying close enough attention to his actions and behaviors—had observed him, a detective—to have detected the lies.

That conclusion was more than a little surprising and Shinichi wasn't sure what to do in this kind of situation in which he met someone who able to see through him so easily. Perhaps he had been a little bit underestimating his new friend after all. It was never good to judge a book by its cover, he had learned that the hard way anyway.

' _Well, it didn't matter,'_ he thought, shutting his eyes for a moment.

"Kuroba-kun, can I ask you something?"

"You just did," Kaito replied cheekily.

Shinichi frowned, annoyed at the response he got. He was being serious here and yet the messy-haired boy said that instead. The magician let out a chuckle when he saw the detective's face before looked at him with an amused expression.

"Okay, okay… What is it?"

"Why did you say _'lies'_ to me? Are you accusing me for lying?"

Kaito raised one of his eyebrows when he heard that.

"I'm not accusing you anything since you did lied though. _'It's nothing. I'm just tired. I'll be fine sooner or later.'_ Those are just excuses people often use in order to make other people not worry about them and some convenient things to say when people are hiding something, when people are lying. Am I wrong?"

"Not really," he muttered, "I'm not lying, though."

' _It wasn't really a lie if it was true a few moments ago.'_

"Not gonna admit it, huh?"

' _No,'_ Shinichi answered mentally while maintained a neutral expression on his face. He wouldn't just admit it, because he was naturally a stubborn person after all.

"Hmm… Then how about you tell me, why do you look so down?"

' _Was I getting sloppy, or was he that good at reading people?'_

He kept quiet for a second as he searched through his brain for something that could be use to change the subject. Anything would do as long as he was able to divert the other boy's attention from him. Because he was certain there was a high possibility that Kaito was going to pester him until he answered.

"Are you worried about me?" he asked in teasing tone.

They stopped walking on a street corner to wait for the light to change. Shinichi glanced up at the magician on his left who also turned to look at him.

"Of course I'm worried," Kaito replied honestly.

Shinichi stood in silence as he stared at Kaito, noticing that nothing in his expressions, posture, and tone of voice suggested that he was kidding. His response really caught him off guard. It never really crossed his mind that he would answer him so seriously like that. With his playful nature, he thought the indigo-eyed boy would give him mischievous or vague reply instead.

"Why…?" he asked in whispered tone.

"Why?" the messy-haired boy repeated in confusion. "You just wrapped up a case and pointed out the killer correctly and excellently. You should be satisfied at least, yet your face and your eyes looked sad instead, like someone who had just lost at their first round in a tournament. That's not what you call a normal reaction. I think Aoko and even Hakuba will be worried as well if they realized it."

There was a brief moment of somewhat awkward silence.

"By the way, Kudo, you're avoiding the question again. What happened? Did you make a mistake or something?"

Shinichi shifted his weight, not looking at him.

It really was a mistake. Not necessary a big one but pretty troublesome. He really should just keep quiet instead of asking questions just because he was a bit curious. He really should just go home by himself instead of letting Aoko decided Kaito escorted him. He really should just decline Aoko's invitation so none of these would ever happen. He really should just escape when he had a chance. He really should just—

"If it's that hard to explain then you don't need to explain it to me, you know. You can talk about it with Hakuba instead. I'm not that interested in detective work anyway," Kaito added.

"No, that's not it," the dark-haired detective replied as he shook his head, "I didn't make any mistakes. There isn't anything wrong with the case either."

As he finished talking, he didn't know why, but somehow he had a nagging thought that he had made another mistake. He didn't have any proves, but somehow he felt that the magician had already known the answer and had lured him into answering just for confirmation. Also, it was kind of unnerving, facing someone who not only didn't buy his lies, but also might be able to see through him easily.

"Ho…? But there is something bothering you, right?"

No reaction from Shinichi, which was as good as a yes.

"The silence occasionally tells us the right answer," the magician remarked.

The few passing cars stopped as the traffic light turned red and the two boys crossed the crosswalk with the rest of the pedestrians around them. Suddenly there was a hand around Shinichi's wrist. He looked up at the other questioningly, but the magician only smirked in return. A second later he was dragged along the street by him to some place. He followed his friend's steady pace as they kept running through the street, avoiding the other pedestrians easily.

"W-wait! Where are we going?" Shinichi asked in puzzlement.

"No need to worry about that!" Kaito replied with a grin.

"Somehow I'm beginning to worry after you said that."

"Come on, don't worry about it!"

"Kuroba-kun, wait a moment please!"

Even though Shinichi kept on protesting, he didn't make any attempt to shake Kaito off. His hand felt warm and there was a familiar aura around him that made Shinichi comfortable. That was strange. However he couldn't think much about it since there was a more pressing matter regarding where his classmate dragged him to. Not to mention that they were beginning to attract attention people around them, too much attention for his liking. Kaito didn't seem to notice though, or maybe just ignoring them just like he ignored Shinichi's protests.

Finally they went inside a small park in the far corner of the street. Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately, depending on your point of view—the place was devoid of people.

Kaito let go of Shinichi's hand as he made his way over to a bench, put the shopping bags down on it then plopped down on the one of the swings, moving back and forth nonchalantly. The dark-haired detective stayed quiet for a minute to catch his breath. It had been a while since last time he ran like that after returning to his original teenage-self. before approaching the other boy calmly.

"Aren't you too old to play in the playground?" Shinichi commented, crossing his arms over his chest while giving the magician a deadpan look.

"So what? There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes," Kaito replied with a mischievous grin, "Besides, it's looked like you really need a break."

The detective let out a sigh—something that he realized he had done a lot today—then sat down on the other swing without another word, right after setting his groceries on the bench near the swing set.

.

.

.

Meanwhile in the other side of the shopping district, Hakuba and Aoko could be seen walking side by side, maneuvered leisurely through the bustling crowd. The blonde threw a side glance at the brunette girl who had her gaze looked ahead on the street but not really focused on anything.

Despite she was already looked way better than before, Hakuba still could see how her hands were still shaking sometimes, how her smile was a little bit strain than her usual carefree smile, or how her eyes were filled with a glimmer of sadness when she thought no one was looking. Obviously she was still bother by the case she had the unfortunate opportunity to encounter. And seeing her like this, he couldn't bring himself not to care and not to say anything.

"Is something the matter, Aoko-san?"

Aoko shook her head lightly. "No, it's nothing."

He _really_ needed to distract her mind from coming back to the previous event. But how?

As he took a look at his surrounding, his brown eyes found an ice cream truck parked nearby, only about live meters from where they stood. He gave Aoko a pat on the shoulder and a smile, silently told her to wait for him here. She titled her head questioningly but nodded a second later. The blonde left then came back soon after bought a strawberry cone for her and a vanilla cone for himself.

"Here," he said as he held the strawberry cone to her.

A smile was printed on her pretty face almost immediately and her deep blue eyes seemed to shine under the sunlight. "Thank you, Hakuba-kun."

"You're welcome."

Aoko took a bit of her ice cream before looked up at the blonde. "Hakuba-kun. About earlier… Actually Aoko is just wondering about what Kaito and Kudo-kun are doing right now."

"You seem to be worried about Kudo-kun a lot. May I know why?"

The two teenagers resumed their walk on the sidewalk. The brunette was silent for a few minutes, trying to think of the best way to say what was going through her mind. While the blonde waited patiently as he ate his ice cream.

"It's just…," she said a bit hesitantly, "Aoko didn't know how or why, but somehow she had a feeling Kudo-kun didn't completely honest with himself. She believed him when he said he was tired. But at the same time she also felt that he had a lot of thoughts in mind which he didn't want us to know."

"Now that you mention it, he did seem to be having some trouble."

The girl nodded. "Something had to be done. That's why she asked Kaito to go with him. Not only because she wanted to make sure Kudo-kun didn't get lost, she also thought that maybe Kaito would be able to calm him down. Kaito is good at making people open up to him after all."

' _He's also very good at making people want to run far away from him,'_ Hakuba added in his mind while refrained himself from saying it out loud.

"When Aoko saw Kudo-kun walked into the classroom for the first time, she noticed he looked uncomfortable and nervous. She thought maybe that was because he's new to Ekoda, just like Aoko back then when Aoko first moved into Ekoda with Tousan," Aoko continued.

"You weren't born here?"

"No. We moved in around nine years ago, when Aoko was still eight years old."

The girl beside him suddenly stopped walking. Hakuba stopped mid-step and turned to her. He raised his eyebrows when he saw a warm smile formed on her lips. He followed her line of sight and found Ekoda Clock Tower in the distance.

"Aoko still remembers, back then she felt so lonely because she didn't know anyone else, didn't have any friends, and Tousan was busy at work. But suddenly Kaito appeared. He extended his hand at her, giving her a blue rose and befriending her. He saved her from loneliness. So she decided that she wanted to extend her hand to Kudo-kun just like what Kaito did to her, wanted to be his friend. It seemed Aoko did it wrongly, though. She made a mistake."

"How so?" Hakuba asked in puzzlement.

Her gaze fell to the ground with a sad smile on her face. "She might be had gone too far, too intrusive with her overly friendly actions and unintentionally overwhelmed Kudo-kun with her excitement," she replied quietly.

The blonde put a hand on her shoulder. "Aoko-san, you did nothing wrong. I'm sure there is still the possibility of other good explanation to Kudo-kun's behavior. If he didn't like you, he would already say so from the beginning. Please, don't blame yourself."

It was a dull encouragement with no solid proof. Just something that was served to make other people feel better. However those lame words seemed to be enough for Nakamori Aoko, as suddenly she glanced up at him and gave him a tiny smile. Because sometimes no matter how lame those words were, sometimes they were needed to be said to reassure anxious hearts.

"Thank you, Hakuba-kun." She paused a moment to eat her ice cream before continued in happy tone, "Aoko decides she is still going to be Kudo-kun's friend and that was final. Hakuba-kun will be his friend too, won't he?"

Hakuba felt his own face soften into a smile. "Yes, Aoko-san."

"Hopefully Kaito could make Kudo-kun to open up to him as well."

"Speaking of Kuroba-kun, there's something that come to my mind."

"What about him?" She eyed him curiously.

"During our lunch at the café suddenly he got out of his seat to go to the bathroom, however the time he took for it was a bit too long. Even if he indeed got stomachache, it shouldn't take that long. Everything about the situation screamed suspicious. If we consider that everything he does, he has a reason for it, no matter how small it is, then there is a possibility that…"

Hakuba's voice trailed off when he noticed Aoko narrowed her deep blue eyes at him. Her smile disappeared and being replaced with a frown, clearly not liking where the conversation was going.

"Is it another Kaito is KID thing?" Aoko asked patiently.

"No," he lied. "I just thought that maybe he was planning something."

He didn't mean to lie to her; he just almost forgot that it was never a good thing to mention that theory in front of her. He had learned a long time ago that Nakamori Aoko wouldn't take his word about it seriously. She wouldn't believe in him and only thought it was just a baseless accusation he did. Though, at the same time, she never got angry at him nor blamed him about it. She was just too kind and too forgiving for her own good.

Come to think of it, Kaitou KID hadn't made any heist for a while, had he? Hakuba hoped—no matter how futile his hope in the end—this time he would be able to stop the phantom thief.

"Eh? Planning something? Like what?"

Aoko's voice pulled him back from his thoughts.

"I don't know, Aoko-san. Whatever it is, I have a feeling I won't like it."

"Oh, come on! Kaito isn't that bad… I think."

"You don't sound so sure yourself."

She let out a small huff. "Well… that's because sometimes he pisses Aoko off to no end."

"I think he pisses everyone off, Aoko-san."

"Ah! That's true," she replied with a nod.

They took a bite of their ice creams before continued their walk with lighter and good mood hanging around in the air between them. A few people on walks casted the two teens some quick glances but Hakuba ignored them meanwhile Aoko didn't seem to notice them. It wasn't an uncommon thing to happen anyway; with their good looks sometimes they seemed to be attracting attention.

The silence between them only lasted for a second as Aoko suddenly opened her mouth to start another topic of conversation. The blonde detective found a smile flitting across his face as he listened to her stories.

.

.

.

Silence enveloped the two teenagers sat on the swing set. There weren't any noises apart from the rustling of the leaves on the trees around the park and the sound of the vehicles on the streets. A public basketball court on the far corner of the park, which usually crowded with people and teenagers, right now was empty. So was the playground, where several equipment such as swing sets, seesaw, monkey bar, slide, jungle gym, and sandbox were located.

Playground wasn't Shinichi's usual place for thinking but the place was peaceful and the silence helped him gathering his thoughts. He stole a glance at Kaito in his right. The latter was still busy swinging back and forth idly, not once saying anything to him. Shinichi briefly wondered what he was thinking. It might be just him, but he had a feeling that the magician's unusual quietness was because he gave him some time to think and calm down.

It did work, actually. Not that he would admit it to him.

His gaze swept through the place for a moment when he suddenly felt a gaze directed at him. He turned to look, only to find a pair of indigo eyes looking back at him with concern. A smile was spreading across the boy's lips, a different smile from the smirk or grin Shinichi commonly saw on his face—it was soft and warm and seemed to see right through him.

"It seems you're more relaxed now," Kaito said. Relief could be heard clearly in his voice.

Shinichi simply looked away from him, unsure how to respond to that. Not to mention there was still the question from him earlier that he hadn't answered yet. It wasn't like that he didn't want to give any answers. It was just that… not only he had no idea how to respond to it; he also honestly didn't know how to bring it up again now, since unlike his prediction, Kaito didn't really push him to talk.

Lies wouldn't work on Kaito so there was only the truth. Even with the truth, that didn't mean he had to explain everything as well. Or…he could just continue to avoid talking about it for longer time than necessary, at least until the magician gave up.

' _That sounds like a good idea actually.'_

Yet, strangely, the thought didn't appear too appealing to him. Besides there was a possibility Kaito wouldn't give up on him. He didn't know whether he should be happy or not at the thought that there was a person who maybe wouldn't give up on him. But he did know that at least he needed to make his new friend understand the danger that lurking around him.

Decision made, Shinichi took a long deep breath then let it out in a sigh.

"You were right, Kuroba-kun. I lied," Shinichi admitted quietly, breaking the silence.

Kaito hummed in response. "So then, what is it that bothering you?"

"Actually there's something you should know," he began, looking at him with a sad smile, "There seems to be something wrong with my existence."

"Eh?"

"Something bad always happens everywhere I go. Whether it's a murder or robbery or bombing or kidnapping or hijacking or something else… Unfortunate events always follow me around like a puppy. It's not coincidence because it happens too many times to be called merely coincidence. It's inevitable. When one case ends, there is always another line up to replace it soon enough. It's a never-ending circle."

"Aren't you a bit exaggerating?"

"I don't think I'm exaggerating here." Shinichi dropped his gaze to the ground as an unpleasant memory crossed his mind for a second. "I don't even know how many times already I watched someone died in front of me while there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. And I always end up dragging people around me into those unfortunate events, those dangerous situations."

"So what you're trying to say is that…you think you're a magnet of death?"

There was no answer, only the silent that spoke louder than words ever could.

"I had thought in Ekoda everything would be different for me. It was probably too much to hope for because murders still happened, people still committed crimes wherever I go, and dangers still lurked around me. Just like how today as well I still encountered a case, here in Ekoda," Shinichi continued, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry the three of you had to get involved."

"But you weren't the one who cause it to happen and you weren't the killer either. Not to mention, a lot of people choke to death in restaurants and other eating establishments," Kaito replied indifferently. There was no accusation in his voice as he was just stating the fact.

"I know. I can't say much about Hakuba-kun, but it's better if you and Aoko-san don't get involved in those kinds of things—those bad experiences—since you two don't deserve it."

Kaito narrowed his eyes at him. "Are you implying that we shouldn't be your friends?"

He shook his head. "I didn't say that, it's just…"

"It's just that you thought it's better if we don't get involved with _you_ , right?" the magician interjected correctly with heavy emphasis, then sighed tiredly. "Seriously, not only you're suck at lying but you're an idiot too."

"Excuse me?"

"I said you're an idiot."

Shinichi blinked in surprise when he heard that. "Idiot? Me?" The corners of his mouth twitched and veins started popping on his forehead. "Personally the last person I could think of as an idiot, it would be me."

"They say the biggest idiots are the ones who don't realize they're idiots."

Kaito's reply was said in such conviction and certainty that made even Shinichi speechless. He glared daggers at the brunette who had the audacity to smirk at him in a way that could best be described as devilish. If he made any more retort it would only made him the idiot just like the other boy called him.

"You might be a genius, but how come you don't even realize it?" the magician wondered aloud in amazement. "Unhappiness is bound to exist anywhere; it's not your fault something unfortunate happened to other people."

Shinichi considered this for a moment.

"That's true, I suppose," he said at last. His gaze slid away from him when an uncomfortable tight feeling appeared in his chest. "But… The world doesn't work like that. Life doesn't work that way. Not everything worked out so neatly in real life. Humans still kill each other so much and crimes will still going around anywhere."

"Well, I'm not going to argue with the Heisei Holmes about that. There doesn't seem much point in denying it anyway. Nevertheless, the fact that someone can hate another person enough to want to kill them isn't your fault either. They're the one who decide to hate each other and it's their own responsibility when they decide murder is the best solution to their problems."

The magician studied him for a few moments before continued in a more serious tone, "Every human has murderous seed in their heart. It's not your fault and it's not a crime in itself since it comes naturally, however people who take their murderous intention into action—into a crime—are the ones who at fault. And I bet you've probably never even thought about it until now."

He didn't have any responses to that because it was true. He hated to admit it but Kaito's words made him sound really, _really_ wise.

"More importantly… You've been blaming yourself non-stop, haven't you?"

Unease flickered across Shinichi's face when he heard that question. He remained quiet, but it was obvious he didn't deny it.

"Then listen to me: Kudo Shinichi, you're not the harbinger of death. So stop being stupid."

Shock was clearly written on his face. His blue eyes widened for a fraction of a second before returning to normal. He repeated the word silently in his mind.

Nobody ever said anything outright to him that he attracted deaths or that he might be the shinigami—the death god—himself, since everywhere he went there ended up being a case. But there were enough people who believed it and enough rumors going around him about it that made Shinichi started to believe it himself as well—despite detectives shouldn't have been believed in such things.

On the other hand, people who didn't believe the rumors also never said anything to him that it wasn't his fault or that he wasn't the cause for the bad thing that happened around him. They just assumed he understood it without they needed to say it to him—even his parents never gave him any input on the matter. It made his inside churn in bitter thoughts. Had everyone forgotten that he was a detective, not a mind reader?

The messy-haired teen slowly got to his feet and moved to stand in front of him. Suddenly he reached out to take Shinichi's right hand, palm up. He looked up at him questioningly when Kaito placed his own right hand on top of his hand.

"Three… Two… One…," he counted-down, then removed his hand.

Shinichi blinked in surprise when he realized there was something suddenly weighted on his hand, seemingly materialized from thin air. He stared at the pudding—orange-flavor pudding, to be exact—with the size as big as his fist before glanced back up at his friend.

"Pudding?" he asked in confusion.

"For dessert," Kaito replied as he stepped back, stuffing his hands on his pockets. "You didn't get any dessert for lunch today, so I thought pudding would do."

"You could just give it to me normally, you know."

"I'm a magician. What kind of magician am I if I just hand it to you like ordinary people do? Magicians have their own way to give things."

After a few moments of silence, finally a small smile formed on Shinichi's lips. Something deep within him felt like had been eased.

"By the way, there's a second example of your stupidity. Wanna hear it?"

The blue-eyed boy shrugged his shoulders with his smile was still firmly in place. "Go ahead."

"If you start avoiding us because you're worried about our safety or something, I'm sorry to inform you that you're just wasting your time because your plan won't work on us. Aoko is quite a persistent girl; you won't be able to get rid of her that easily. You'll have to try a lot harder than that. Besides, what kind of a person do you take me for?"

"I don't know. We barely knew each other."

"Exactly. That's why don't underestimate me. I can understand exactly what you're trying to do and why you're doing it, however that doesn't meant I'll just give up on befriending you," Kaito said with a grin before he turned around, completely missed the grateful look Shinichi sent at him. "It's chilly out here. Let's head back."

Shinichi looked at the other for a moment that walked back to the bench to pick up the two shopping bags full of groceries. Then he raised his eyes to the sunset sky. It was a brilliant scarlet as if the sky was stained by blood. He wasn't too fond with the color yet he didn't outright detest it. Closing his eyes, the detective enjoyed a gust of wind playing with his hair before opening them again. He got up, approaching the bench to take the other two of his shopping bags.

"Kuroba-kun," Shinichi called out without really thinking as they walked out of the park. He wasn't sure either what was it he actually wanted to tell him about. "Ano, that…"

Kaito raised one of his eyebrows questioningly. "What is it?"

"I… I am sorry for the trouble I caused today and… Thank you," he said awkwardly.

The magician pasted an innocent look on his face. "Hm? I only took my new friend to a park so he could rest there for a while since he said he was tired, right? There's no need to thank me for it because that's what friends do."

He couldn't help smiling a little when he heard that. "Still. Thank you, Kuroba-kun."

"You're welcome," the other replied with a grin. "Also… you don't have to be so formal, Shinichi. We're friend, aren't we? Just call me Kaito."

Shinichi blinked at the magician's familiar way of using his name then gave him a nod. "Ah, well… yes, Kaito-kun."

.

.

.

The dark-haired boy stopped in his track then looked up at the building in front of him. He rubbed his eyes in the hope of getting rid of his sleepiness. Then he stared, and stared long for a few seconds at the building with a disbelieved look on his face. No matter how long he saw at it, it didn't change. Fishing his phone from his pocket for the navigation app to make sure where exactly he was. He glanced back at the way he walked from and he was sure he didn't make any wrong turn. But then, how did he end up in here?

' _It's…a castle? Somehow, before anyone knew it, the school building had transformed into a castle overnight?'_

That seemed to be unlikely. Yet the evidence was in front of him.

There was a grand castle with sandstone bricks as walls in place of Ekoda High School building supposed to stand. It even had two tall towers looking towards the horizon and two small ones on its right and left side—all sporting reddish roof tiles. High yellow limestone walls surrounded the place instead of the normal fence. A small but elegant fountain and beautiful garden of roses grew where the school courtyard supposed to be.

' _The castle's design… isn't it a bit looked like castle in Yokosuka?'_

His gaze wandered to his surrounding and realized there was a huge crowd—consisting mostly students of Ekoda High. Considering the bewildered expression on their faces, he could conclude they were equally confused as him, which meant he wasn't the only one that ended up in this weird situation. The majority of them had a phone in their hands, taking some pictures of the castle and even doing some selfie.

In the far corner of the courtyard he could see some teachers stood with exasperated looks in their faces. That was when he realized that this castle was indeed the school building. Glad to know it, since he had thought he got lost somehow and worried he would be getting late to come to school.

Blue eyes found a mop of blonde hair among the crowd of students. After a moment Shinichi slowly walked over to the other detective with the thought that perhaps he could enlighten him about the condition of their school.

"Good morning, Hakuba-san," he greeted the British detective.

Hakuba turned to look at him then a small smile formed in his handsome face. "Good morning, Kudo-san."

"This is… Uh… What happened?"

"One of Kuroba-kun's pranks."

Shinichi blinked. _'Well, that's unexpected.'_

"Apparently he thought it was a good idea to give the school building a new look (literally) for the new term this year, so the school wouldn't be looked too boring. I think he _is_ actually the one who is bored though," Hakuba explained with an exasperated sigh. "Yesterday I kind of knew he was planning something, but unfortunately I didn't know what it was. Now though, we know it."

"Why he chose a castle?" he asked, because he wasn't sure what else he should ask in a situation like this. He had never gone to school to suddenly find a castle instead, after all.

"I had no idea. Aoko-san speculated it might have something to do with her comment of the movie they watched before the new term started. He got inspired or something… But who knows? Personally I think he just likes to create chaos and makes other people in troubles."

"So… he often does this kind of things?"

"Yes. And I'm afraid to inform you that this kind of things is normal around here."

Ah, that reminded him of the conversation he had with Hakuba yesterday. Didn't the blonde say something like _'normal is a relative thing in Ekoda'_? Shinichi had tried to ask him what he meant by that, but the other refused to give him explanation, instead saying that he would understand it himself soon enough. He had never expected it to be _this_ soon though.

' _And the cause of it is Kuroba Kaito.'_

It didn't quiet make senses—since Kaito was the one who wisely gave him good advice yesterday—however at the same time made a lot of senses—since Kaito was also a mischievous magician. Now that he thought about it, it was explaining a lot of things actually. Like the reason behind the students' and the teachers' reaction when they saw him the first time yesterday. They thought Shinichi was Kaito, and afraid that he would do some pranks on them.

The two detectives started walking into the castle—er, school building—together while the other students who mostly the first year students were still gaping at the sight before them.

Out of curiosity Shinichi touched the sandstone brick walls. Beneath his fingertips he felt the cold and rough texture of the brick wall. He brought his hand to his chin, wondering just how Kaito did it, disguising the whole school as a lavish castle. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hakuba was doing the same as him.

' _Kuroba-kun—no, Kaito-kun really put on amazing details just for a prank,'_ Shinichi thought as his blue eyes looked at his surrounding.

The interior of the building apparently had been renovated as well. It clearly didn't look the same as the day before, with the exception the structure of the building itself was still a bit the same.

The gold chandeliers could be seen hanging from the ceiling, replacing the normal lamps. Red carpet with gold lining covered the white marble floors. Each wooden doors of the school had transformed into different shape with elaborate carvings on them. There were beautiful paintings from various sizes being placed on the yellowish walls and big crystal vases overflowing with flowers adorning around the hallways. Even the stairs were looking way too much grander than usual.

"It's kind of like going back to the past in the medieval time," Hakuba commented.

"Or…getting into a virtual reality game," Shinichi added.

"Aoko-san maybe thinks it's kind of like being transported into a fairy tale book instead."

"Speaking of Aoko-san, I didn't see her anywhere. She came with you, didn't she?"

"Yes. But unfortunately she's busy running after Kuroba-kun at the moment."

"Running after…?"

The question was left unanswered when suddenly they heard a loud manly shriek from behind them. They looked over their shoulder and immediately found themselves in shock.

Not too far behind them stood a middle-aged man in a fancy king costume, completed with a red cape with white fur lining over his shoulders and a royal crown at the top of his head. What really threw them off was the man's face. He was the principal of Ekoda High School.

"Why did the principal…wear that…king costume…?" Shinichi asked a bit hesitantly.

"It was a part of his pranks, I think," the British detective replied dazedly. Then he frowned when he could feel that all hell was about to break loose at any moment.

The two detectives had barely gotten two steps into the hallway when suddenly they were engulfed in a white smoke that smelled like cherry. Both shrieked reflexively. The smoke dispatched as soon as it came and they found themselves no longer in their school uniform. Shinichi was in a hunter costume, completed with a large bow and arrows in a quiver at his back, and Hakuba was in a bard costume with a harp in his hands.

Shinichi looked at his new outfit with a foreboding feeling that this kind of things was another new thing he needed to get used to in Ekoda. Meanwhile Hakuba sighed and closed his eyes in the hope that when he opened it, the world would be a better place. It never worked yet never stopped him from doing so.

A second later, similar white smokes appeared in various places along the long hallway and classes, gauging cries of surprises from the students and teachers alike. When the smoke cleared away they all gasped simultaneously as they found themselves already wearing various costumes from knights in armors, warriors, princesses, princes, aristocrats, mages, even maids and butlers. The costumes were match with the environment they all currently in, castle.

"This is a new form of bullying," the dark-haired boy muttered quietly.

He heard a resigned sigh from the blonde detective.

"Unfortunately, yes. And not to mention it is worst than the normal bullying."

Shinichi couldn't help but agreed with him, because Kaito's targets not only the students but teacher as well—even the principal. Then again, despite the chaos and mayhem, a lot of the victims seemed to be enjoying it instead of feeling miserable. He also noticed some students which presumably from the drama club and photographer club doing some impromptu photo-shots right away. So maybe it wasn't completely a bad thing either.

As soon as the two detectives entered their classroom, they discovered that class 3-B, just like the other classrooms, had turned into an extremely fancy classroom. There were antique tables, antique chairs, ivory white curtains on the windows, old grandfather clock on the wall, and red carpet on the floor. Even the blackboard had a decorative golden frame round it.

"Bakaito!"

A familiar feminine voice could be heard shouting from the corridor, accompanied by thunderous steps and cries of the other students. A second later the door opened and Kaito flew in with Aoko rushing towards him at lightning speed. With a mop in her hands she tried to strike his head with a powerful blow, but the brown-haired boy evaded it easily.

"Bakaito! Cut it out already!" Aoko shouted as she spun her body around; the black maid costume couldn't hinder her movements. Then she swung her mop with all her strength at him again. "Didn't Aoko tell Kaito to behave!?"

The magician, who at the moment was wearing a wizard costume, suddenly crouched down to duck it in time. "Well, yeah… I said I won't do any pranks at the start of new term. But it's already the second day, so technically I don't break any promise, Ahoko!"

Aoko frowned at that because it was indeed true, but still…

"Well, at least turn everything back to normal!"

"Why? Can't you see that everyone enjoying it, Ahoko?"

"Then, at least Kaito could give Aoko another costume other than maid!"

Kaito stood up then tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling for several seconds. At last he said, "Why not? I think it's simply too suitable for you, though. Considering your hobby is carrying around a mop." There was a hint of a laugh in his voice.

"BAKAITO!"

In split seconds later Aoko launched another attack and Kaito took a step back to dodge it automatically. She swung back her mop at him who moved away then jumped to one of the tables to avoid getting hit. The fight continued as they were dashing, jumping, and leaping back all over the place with little regard to the other occupants of the room. On the other hand, their classmates didn't seem bothered by it and decided to just continue watching from the sidelines, out of the combat zone.

"Should we stop them?" Shinichi asked at the British detective, though he didn't know how to stop two energetic people like that.

"That won't be necessary," the blonde said calmly as he sat at his seat. "They always do it almost everyday and they'll stop the fight by themselves eventually. It's never a wise decision to get in their way after all."

' _Another strange thing I need to get used to,'_ Shinichi thought to himself with a sigh.

* * *

To be continued…


End file.
